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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29712687">Dagger From The Mirror</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account/pseuds/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account'>TotallyNotASecretAO3Account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TMNT Fics [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alien Invasion, Angst, Both April ONeils are awesome, Don't you even look at this fic, Evil 2018 bois, Focuses on the 2012 boys in the beginning, It's not their fault tho, Mind Control, TCEST DNI, TMNT Crossover, The Kraang force the 2018 turtles to fight the 2012 turtles, They'll be saved I promise, but the others will have their turn later on</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:00:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>76,485</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29712687</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account/pseuds/TotallyNotASecretAO3Account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kraang are ready. Their plan to take over Earth has been running smoothly for centuries, and they only have the final steps of their plan left to finally gain their second home... Until the turtles come around. No matter what they do, they can't seem to defeat them. The mutants knock down every tower they build and all the progress they make, and now the Kraang are getting desperate.</p>
<p>But they have the technology, the interdimensional portals, and the mind control devices... and so they hatch a plan. It's a plan that cannot possibly fail. After all, who would be better to defeat the turtles than the turtles themselves?</p>
<p>_______________________________________</p>
<p>A fic in the 2012 universe in which the Kraang kidnap and mind control the 2018 gang, and use them to attack and destroy the 2012 boys. Takes place before the season 2 finale of the 2012 series! </p>
<p>Updates every Saturday.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Donatello &amp; April O'Neil (TMNT), Donatello &amp; Leonardo &amp; Michelangelo &amp; April O'Neil &amp; Raphael (TMNT), Donatello &amp; Leonardo &amp; Michelangelo &amp; Raphael (TMNT), I haven't decided yet but either way romance is not the focus of this fic, I'm thinking about adding in one or two romantic ships later on but... probably not, So far all of this is platonic/familial</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>TMNT Fics [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>212</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>364</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Her Name Is April O'Neil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey guys, welcome to Dagger From The Mirror, my first crossover tmnt fic!</p>
<p>I love the crossover works of the fandom, but most of them seem to focus just on the interactions between the characters and the plots are usually "oh shoot we accidentally went to the other universe—let's hang out and meet everyone while the Donnies work on getting us home!" </p>
<p>Not to say I don't love all of those fics and haven't read as many as I could, but I wanted something with a little more plot, ya know? I always wanted something that takes place before season 5 and season 2 of each show, so there's more time to play with the characters and their character growth.<br/>And then I remembered that it's canon the Kraang can travel and have traveled to other tmnt universes in the past, and have used mind control before... so, this fic was born.</p>
<p>I hope you guys enjoy! I'm having a lot of fun writing it, so I hope y'all will enjoy it too.</p>
<p>Oh! One more thing: If you guys have any questions about the fic you can find me on tumblr @Nostalgiaruinedme . I answer asks on there and will be posting some other information and extra stuff about this fic over there, so go follow!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Hamato Leonardo was quite perceptive.</p><p>    He had to be. When you were the leader of a team of teenage ninjas, having a keen sense of intuition was vital. It was life or death. He had to be able to look out for his brothers and always be aware of his surroundings. At any moment, someone could be lurking in the shadows or aiming an arrow directly at their heads. Under their feet there could be a wire, just waiting to trip them and set off an explosion. Their enemies were just waiting for the moment Leo let his guard down.</p><p>    It didn't matter whether they were on a mission to save the world or sitting at home playing video games; Leo was always on the lookout. He slept with his swords by his bedside, he ran with an ear out listening for the slightest sign of danger, and he always made sure he knew where the nearest escape route was. This planning had saved his team's lives before, so he didn't plan to stop anytime soon. Leonardo was always listening for danger. </p><p>    And it was exactly this cautiousness that told him something was off. </p><p>    Leo glanced back at the edge of the building where he stood with his brothers. The four were discussing something about a new comic that Mikey was reading, but Leo had long since drifted out of the conversation in order to focus on the sound he knew he had heard. While his brothers may not have noticed the quiet breathing from of someone standing on the fire escape below, he <em>did</em>. </p><p>    Now, this would not have bothered him usually. People could do that if they wanted to, Leo didn't really care. They were low enough that they couldn't look over the edge of the roof to see them; all they could hear was their voices. If these random New Yorkers wanted to listen to their stupid conversations, then Leo figured they could have at it—even their actual plans of attack against the Kraang and Shredder probably sounded like pages from a new novel or the hottest new TV show. The worst that had ever happened from that was  some old guy yelling at them for being "rowdy teenagers" staying up too late "on a school night". That had made all of them laugh, and the man threatened to climb up there and call their parents. Mikey and Raph wanted to lean over the edge and beg him not to call their parents just to freak the guy out, and Leo had almost let them. Keyword: almost. Even he was disappointed when he decided they should just leave.</p><p>    No, Leo wouldn't have paid the person on the fire escape a second thought. But he heard them hold their breaths after, and after sparing a subtle glance behind him, he saw the person had climbed up a bit and was peering over the edge of the roof.... watching them, before ducking down once again to stay hidden. This wasn't just a random New Yorker wanting some air.</p><p>    They were being watched. </p><p>    "That doesn't even make logical sense!" Donnie exclaimed, holding the comic book in his hands. He pointed to the creators' names on the cover, "Whoever Jenna Brown and Gerard Santos are, they don't understand anything about science at all. None of the science in this comic makes sense! It's all gibberish!"</p><p>    Mikey ripped the book from Donnie's hands in an instant, and hugged it to his chest tightly. "You take that back! This story is a work of pure genius and Dr. Tobias is even smarter than you!"</p><p>    Raphael laughed as Donnie fumed, and the two broke off into a more ridiculous argument over whether Dr. Tobias' explanation of his shrink ray made any sense. Raph watched in amusement, and glanced over to his older brother.</p><p>    "Hey Leo, are you seeing this? They-"</p><p>    He stopped when he saw the serious expression on Leonardo's face. His eyes widened when Leo very subtly gestured behind him, and silently mouthed something that made him do a double take.</p><p>    "<em>We're being followed</em>."</p><p>    Now that Raphael was aware too, Leo quickly started to formulate a plan. With a few quick hand gestures and another look sent to his brother, Raph got the overall message. He quickly mumbled something along the lines of forgetting his T-Phone at home, faking his annoyance, and then disappeared off the opposite side of the building. The youngest brothers continued their discussion.</p><p>    "Mikey, I swear, if you say that one more time-"</p><p>    "You just don't understand <em>science</em>."</p><p>    "Do you know who you're talking to?!"</p><p>    "I-"</p><p>    "Hey! Get your hands off of me!" Their argument ended abruptly with the sounds of protest coming from the fire escape, as Raphael pulled the spy up onto the rooftop. Leo grinned at how well his plan had worked, while Donnie and Mikey watched the scene with wide eyes. What had they missed?</p><p>    "I'm serious, let go of me right now, or you'll regret it!" The girl exclaimed, trying to pull her left arm away from Raph's hand. He eventually let go, once he realized she wasn't a foot ninja waiting for the chance to kick him in the shin, though he still stood right next to her to make sure she didn't run. She glared at him, rubbing her upper arm. "You could've been more gentle, you know. You'll be lucky if that doesn't leave a bruise."</p><p>    "Alright, start talking," Leo interrupted with a frown. He pulled out one sword, pointing the blade at her. His grip was loose enough that it wasn't an outright attack, but a genuine threat nonetheless. The girl frowned, but didn't seem all that too threatened, oddly enough. Leo took this chance to get a better look at just who their observer was. </p><p>    She looked to be around their age, probably 16 or 17. She had dark skin and darker hair, and wore large red cat-eyed glasses. The corners of lips were pulled downward in a tight frown, but she didn't look scared, just upset and annoyed. Somehow, there was a sense of recognition in her eyes. She didn't seem put off by their appearance, and there was purpose behind her following them; he could tell. It made Leo uncomfortable. He had no idea who this girl was, but she must know something about them.</p><p>    "Why were you following us?"</p><p>    "I-" She started to speak, but then paused. She pursed her lips and looked up in thought, visibly weighing her options, and then let out a sigh.</p><p>    "I was following you guys, but I swear I'm not a bad guy, okay? I just needed to talk to you."</p><p>    "Then why were you watching us like a creep instead of saying something?" Mikey asked, more genuinely confused than outright suspicious like his brothers. The girl laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment.</p><p>    "Well, you see, I was trying to figure out what exactly to say that would stop something like this from happening," She admitted. "I guess I kinda messed that up, though. Sorry 'bout that."</p><p>    "Cut the small talk," Raphael growled, taking a step back to stand with his brothers now that he was sure she wasn't going to run away. "Tell us who the hell you are and what you want or you're not gonna get another chance. I'll make sure of that."</p><p>    "Wow, you're mean here..." The girl mumbled under her breath, voice so low they almost didn't catch it. She sighed once again. When she spoke again, it was all in one breath.</p><p>    "My name is April O'Neil, and I'm from another dimension... I think, or something like that at least, " She blurted out. "I got kidnapped by these weird things called the Kraang into your world along with four of my friends who   are you guys in my dimension, turtles just like you, and those aliens want to use them to hurt you guys apparently and I'm trying to warn you and wow I just realized how ridiculous this all sounds."</p><p>    Leo blinked. "What?"</p><p>    "What the hell are you talking about?" Raphael was very blunt. "You're not April, we know April, come up with a better story."</p><p>    Mikey frowned, squinting suspiciously, "Maybe she's April's twin sister."</p><p>    "They look nothing alike, Mikey." Raphael punched him in the shoulder. Mikey just looked confused.</p><p>    "So? What's that gotta do with anything?" </p><p>    "Why would twins look nothing alike and have the exact same name? Do you know how twins work?"</p><p>    Mikey frowned, looking up in thought for several moments, before he shook his head. "No, not really."</p><p>    The self proclaimed April groaned, her frustration growing. Making vague gestures as though she were trying to strangle the air, she tried to explain herself again. "I mean... Ugh!! Exactly what I said!" She suddenly turned to Donnie, "You're the Donatello here, right?! You better be smart like my Donnie, so listen! There's more than one dimension, there's alternate universes and alternate versions of all of you there, and I'm from a different one, and my boys were kidnapped and I overheard the weird brain creatures talking about mind controlling them to attack you guys, so I decided to do the nice thing and warn you!" She laughed hesitantly, rubbing her arm and looking away before mumbling a few more words.</p><p>    "Annnndd... I have no idea how to get them back or get home on my own, so this was all I had to go off of..."</p><p>    No one spoke for several long moments. The turtles were processing everything she just said, each going through their own various phases of disbelief, confusion, and the like. April, on the other hand, was growing more anxious with each passing second of quiet. She began to tap her foot against the ground, looking around nervously and praying the silence would end soon. She soon grew impatient. </p><p>    "Well? Say something!" </p><p>    "I..." Leo hesitated, and that hesitation gave a certain someone the perfect opportunity to interrupt. </p><p>    "You can't expect us to believe any of that." Raphael deadpanned. "I mean... it's ridiculous! There's not two Aprils, there's not more us's, and you're either crazy or... or a foot spy or something!" He laughed nervously, looking around at his brothers for support, "Right, guys? There's no way she's telling the truth."</p><p>    "I'm not lying!" April exclaimed.</p><p>    Raphael just laughed. "Yeah, you are-"</p><p>    "I don't know, Raph," Donnie spoke up, "I mean, I've never been able to prove it but... the multi-verse is a completely plausible thing. I guess it's not completely impossible that there's other dimensions out there with different versions of us." He frowned, "But... I've never even considered that any technology would be advanced enough to permit interdimensional travel...."</p><p>    "Exactly!" Raphael exclaimed. He pointed accusingly at her, "Come on, there's no way she's from another universe. This is probably just a ploy to get us to walk right into some Kraang lab to save her-" He used his two fingers to create sarcastic air quotes, "'friends', and as soon as we try to save them we'll be thrown right into a trap!"</p><p>    "Hey," April folded her arms over her chest, "Don't you go putting words in my mouth. I never once suggested walking in there!"</p><p>    "My point still stands."</p><p>    "But Raph, weren't you just suggesting we go invade one of the Kraang's hideouts again because they're 'probably up to something' like, an hour ago?" Mikey pointed out, only to be met by a fury filled glare of Raph. </p><p>    "Okay, we'll figure that out later, team, let's just see what she says happened," Leo spoke up. He sent everyone a look that shut them up, which made April blink in surprise, though he wasn't sure why. He turned back to her.</p><p>    "You said they kidnapped your friends to attack us, right?" Leonardo asked, to which April hesitantly nodded. "Well, what did they do? Are your... us's evil or something?"</p><p>    "No, of course not!" April exclaimed. "I... I don't know what exactly I saw, but..." She shook her head, interrupting herself. "I'm gonna start from the beginning."</p><p>    "Ooh, storytime!" Mikey shouted, which made the girl chuckle a little. She began her story,</p><p>    "So I was hanging out with my Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie a few hours ago—or was it last night? I'm not sure, I lost track of time—when this crazy pink purple portal opened. Leo was freaking out claiming it wasn't his portal when these crazy robots with brain creatures inside them stepped out and started shooting at us. </p><p>    "We would've won, we took out a ton of them. But they just kept coming and coming and coming... There were dozens of them, and we must've taken out at least a hundred. We knew we needed to shut down the portal and Mikey just- he just  jumped through! Probably try to shut it down himself or something, so we all had to follow him through and we were in this weird looking world. They had Mikey unconscious by the time we got in, and then Leo's and Raph's mystic weapons weren't working and they took down Donnie and Raph... took them somewhere just like Mikey."</p><p>    Despite the turtles being quite confused over her describing Leo worrying they'd blame him for the portal or what mystic weapons even were, they stayed quiet April's face had grown downcast. Her voice had lost the excited storytelling tone it had in the beginning, and she sighed, continuing much more softly.</p><p>    "And then it was just me and Leo. He really didn't want to, but we had to retreat, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't portal us out of there—poor thing was worried he was failing again before since he's had a lot of trouble with his sword, but Raph's tonfas hadn't been working either. We kept running and we hid in some Kraang storage room, and then he locked me in one of the storage closets so he could go run off and try and save them without me getting kidnapped too—the stubborn moron knew I was gonna go help him, but he was convinced we'd lose either way so... He saved me, I'm gonna strangle him for it, and all four of them got captured. I just... let it happen."</p><p>    A silence again, and Leonardo hesitantly spoke, "That's awful, but you said that they wanted to-" </p><p>    He was interrupted with April shoving a hand over his mouth, effectively silencing him. Caught completely off guard, he froze and she glared at him. "Don't you go interrupting this girl in the middle of her emotional story! Listen up!"</p><p>    Leo nodded while the other three hid a laugh, and April continued. </p><p>    "I stayed in there a while... partially because I was terrified they'd hear since the bots were still looking for me, but mostly because Leo locked the stupid door so I didn't have much of a choice. I eventually found and crawled through the air ducts, then went to try to find them.</p><p>    "It took a while, but when I found them, they were.... different. They had some kind of," April gestured blindly, "purple glowing device put on the back of their necks, and the Kraang were giving them orders and they were <em>listening</em>. They were listening to them! Like they were-"</p><p>    "Mind controlled." Donnie's eyes widened, "Those were the same things April's—I mean, our April—her dad was controlled with!"</p><p>    "So, what, the Kraang went to grab us from another dimension to use them to kill us?" Raph asked.</p><p>    "That makes sense, yeah," Donnie nodded, frowning, "It sounds like a pretty Kraang-like plan. And I wouldn't be surprised if they had the technology to do that, they're already traveling back and forth between here and Dimension X without an issue. Traveling to another dimension to kidnap us to mind control isn't too far out there, I guess." Mikey gasped.</p><p>    "Dudes, we're gonna have to fight us?!" He exclaimed, "Woah, bros, that's like, blowing my mind... Do I gotta punch myself? What if we get us mixed up? What if other me doesn't like me?!"</p><p>    "I don't think that's our main worry here, Mikey-"</p><p>    "Okay, well, at least we know that this is something the Kraang could, and would, pull off." Leo interrupted, frowning. "Donnie's right about that."</p><p>    "So you believe me?" April asked hopefully. Raph narrowed his eyes.</p><p>    "Slow down there," He said, arms folded across his plastron. Though he still seemed suspicious, his sais had returned to their place on his belt, so that was a good sign. "We didn't say that. You could easily be lying, and your story is still ridiculous. We still don't trust you, yet, none of us do."</p><p>    Raphael's statement was mostly correct. Neither He nor Donnie or Leo completely trusted her words just quite yet. Michelangelo, however...</p><p>    "What's other me like?!" He excited asked, standing right in front of Other April with his hands on either of her shoulders. "Is he funny? Does he like pizza? Does he have Ice Cream Kitty too?"</p><p>    April chuckled, "Uh, yes, yes, and um... no, I'm not sure who or what that is."</p><p>    Mikey gasped dramatically, recoiling in horror at the thought, while April laughed. "Nooooooooooo!!!" He cried out in anguish, falling down to the ground. Not bothering to stay down long, he jumped back up and launched into even more questions about his other self. April seemed content to listen and answer them, amused.</p><p>    The remaining three turtles took the opportunity to back away from them, and whisper amongst themselves out of the newcomer's earshot.</p><p>    "So, what are we thinking?" Leo asked, "Do you guys believe her?"</p><p>    "Hell no!" Raph whisper-yelled, "Are you kidding? There is absolutely no way this chick is for real. This is obviously some trap by the Kraang or the Shredder, or both."</p><p>    "I don't know Raph..." Donnie looked down, "I... I think she might be telling the truth."</p><p>    "What? Her story is ridiculous!"</p><p>    "Yeah, it is," Donnie agreed, "And that's why I think she's serious. She seemed genuine when telling her story, but more importantly than that, why on Earth would the Kraang or the Foot come up with a story like that to trick us? They'd try to go for something more realistic, like having that girl claim one of our friends were captured, and send her to us for help. There's a billion better stories than kidnapped and mind controlled alternate turtles."</p><p>    Leo nodded, "I've gotta agree with Donnie on this one, Raph. Her story is crazy, but I think it's a little too crazy to not be true."</p><p>    The red masked turtle looked rapidly back and forth between his two brothers, mouth agape. "Are you kidding me? Both of you believe her? She's gonna betray us!"</p><p>    "I'm not saying she's definitely telling the truth," Leo said, "But there's a chance she is, one that I think is pretty high... We should at least hear her out. If we end up not seeing these other turtles ever, then she's lying. But if we do see ourselves, then that speaks for itself."</p><p>    "Unless she stabs us in the back before we get the chance," Raph grumbled. Donnie frowned. </p><p>    "We have shells, Raph, that'd be a highly ineffective method of betrayal-"</p><p>    "It's an expression, Donnie, and you know that." Raphael rolled his eyes. Two arms suddenly appeared around his and Donnie's shoulders, a grinning Mikey popping up between them. </p><p>    "Guys! Guys! You'll never believe this!" The youngest turtle exclaimed, "Other April says other us's have magic weapons!!! Except Other Donnie because he's boring and didn't want one or something, I don't know, but other me has a kusari-fundo that can turn into a flaming skull with a cool fire spirit!! Isn't that cool?!"</p><p>    Donnie met Raph's sight with a raised brow, "You still think the Kraang would come up with something like that?" He asked. Raphael replied with a groan, but didn't say anything else. He waved him off.</p><p>    Sighing, Leo got to work.</p><p>    "Alright, April, we'll trust you <em>for now</em>," He said, shooting a glare at his younger brother, who was giving Other April dirty looks. "And Raphael is going to too, because that's what we decided to do."</p><p>    "You mean, that's what you decided to do. I did not agree to that," Raph snapped. </p><p>    "And I'm the leader of this team <em>which you are on</em>, and I said we're gonna trust her for now, and what I say goes, got it?" Leo hissed. Raphael didn't reply, and turned his gaze elsewhere. April looked lost.</p><p>    "Wait, you're in charge here?" She asked. Leo nodded, looking slightly confused. April looked even more so. "Huh."</p><p>    "Is your Leonardo not?" Donnie asked, and April shook her head. Leo frowned.</p><p>    "Wait, who is leader then?"</p><p>    "Raphael."</p><p>    "What?!" Both Leo and Raph exclaimed simultaneously, shock evident on both their faces. April nodded.</p><p>    "Yeah, but my Raph is also a lot different than yours too... A lot nicer, and more trusting. It's Leo who is all suspicious of everyone, and I don't think he'd even want to be leader." She pursed her lips in thought, two fingers on her chin, "The Mikeys are probably the most similar from what I've seen so far..."</p><p>    Questions were now on the tips of everyone's tongues, begging for an answer, an explanation, or anything. What were they like then? What about Donnie? What was their world like? What was up with the magical weapons? There were so many unknowns to her story. Leo glanced around at his team, and sighed. There was a time and place for everything, but here and now was not for those questions. Not with how late—or early—it had gotten.</p><p>    "Okay, well... we'll find out more about them later," Leo said, slowly, "For now, we should be getting home—the sun is gonna be up soon. We need to get back to the lair."</p><p>    "You're showing her where the lair is?!" Raph shouted, but April just waved his concerns off.</p><p>    "Oh, relax, meaner Raph," She said nonchalantly. "You guys live in the sewers, right? If I didn't see you guys by chance tonight I was gonna go searching there anyways; that's where my boys live too. I'd have found you all eventually."</p><p>    Raphael looked to Donnie and Leo helplessly, who both shrugged. Mikey ran ahead of them and pulled April along.</p><p>    "Come on, I'll show you where it is!" He grinned, completely comfortable with April at this point and acting as though they had been friends for years, "Let's go!"</p><p>    April laughed and the two jumped down from the building, climbing down the fire escapes and landing on their feet before the others even realized it. Raphael mumbled some more complaints and swore under his breath, but didn't object anymore and just silently followed the two. Donnie trailed close behind.</p><p>    Leonardo stood behind for a few seconds longer, wondering if he had made the right choice. He hoped so, at least; they couldn't afford a spy in their midst, not after all they had worked for... The Foot was still a threat. Karai was mutated and lost. The Kraang were planning an invasion. They had too much to plan for, and not enough time to get it all done. Adding in this wasn't going to be fun, and if this April really was a spy like Raph said, they might lose the secrecy of their own home. They couldn't afford that.</p><p>    But if Leo was right to trust her, and Raphael was wrong... maybe that'd be even worse. That would mean they were going to be forced to fight themselves, and would have the added task of saving them, and protecting another human. The Kraang would have no doubt upgraded their mind control tech by now, since they must have known that they freed April's dad of their control months ago, so it might take Donnie a bit to figure out how to get their minds free. Not to mention Leo had no idea how strong these other turtles were. What if they were even better fighters than them? April had mentioned mystic weapons, whatever those were, so that probably wouldn't be fun to deal with. The Kraang wouldn't have taken them if they were much weaker, so they had to be at least evenly matched... </p><p>    Leo had no idea what they were about to face, but he knew one thing: these next few days were going to be quite stressful. The next hour would be even worse, since he'd have to explain to Master Splinter why they brought yet another stranger into their home. And they had just gotten another lecture on not doing that only a few days ago...</p><p>    Leonardo sighed, and followed his brothers and a new April O'Neil back home. Everything would be dealt with soon enough.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Adrenaline</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>April talks a bit with Leonardo and then helps Donnie geek out about the reality of the multiverse. Raph reveals what he's really so angry about regarding letting April into their home.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    "And so that's why we brought her home to the lair, Sensei," Leonardo said, after recounting the story to a very concerned Splinter. "Because the... situation required it. And I'm pretty sure she was gonna try and follow us anyways if we didn't let her down."</p>
<p>    April nervously waved, smiling, "Yeah! Don't worry, you can trust me, I ain't a snitch!"</p>
<p>    Leo nodded in agreement, hands at his sides and back as straight as possible. He knew that Splinter was probably more than simply tired of them bringing home strangers every other week, especially considering their lair was supposed to be secret. But in their line of work, what could they do? Sometimes people needed a place to stay, and sometimes they needed to come back to the turtles' base in order to plan.. Plus, Leo believed her on her earlier claim of "<em>I'd have found you all eventually</em>", so really, he had no choice! Mostly. Surely their father would understand why they had to bring her back to the lair.</p>
<p>    "Hmmm..." Splinter mummered, before nodding his reluctant approval. "Very well. She may stay... <em>for now.</em> But you must confirm her story as soon as possible. Tomorrow night, understood?"</p>
<p>    "Hai, Sensei," Leo immediately agreed, and his father retreated to the dojo to meditate. He visibly deflated, and breathed out a sigh of relief.</p>
<p>    At least that was over.</p>
<p>    "Dang, your Splinter is strict," April muttered, which stole Leo's attention. He frowned in confusion, and April shrugged. "The Splinter back home is a lot more laid back... literally. All he does is lay around all day and watch TV."</p>
<p>    "Really?" To be honest, that surprised Leo even more than hearing that Raphael was the leader in her universe. If he wasn't the leader, he'd expect it to be Raph, so he honestly wasn't all that shocked at the news. But Master Splinter watching a screen all day? "I don't think I've ever seen Master Splinter watch TV. We only have one for us because Donnie found an old one and fixed it up a few years ago, I don't think Sensei has even touched it, besides to turn it off."</p>
<p>    "Ha! My guys practically have to fight 'im if they wanna watch anything. Splints has pretty much got a claim on it 24/7," April said, seeming a lot more comfortable now that they were offering her a bit of trust. She had spoken a bit to Donnie and a lot to Mikey on the way back, though Raph still refused to do anything than keep a constant suspicious watch on her. She was funny and enjoyable to be around, and one of the few humans that didn't seem extremely uncomfortable being within five feet of them, so Leo really didn't even mind that she was there.</p>
<p>    The situation surrounding it could be better, but hey, beggers can't be chosers.</p>
<p>    "I think you should talk to Donnie," Leo said as the two walked further into the main room, where Mikey and Raph were already sitting in the pit. "He's been holding himself back but I can tell he's dying to ask about the other dimension. He's probably coming up with a dozen theories on the multiple dimensions and geeking out in his lab."</p>
<p>    April laughed, "Yeah, he would be doing that if he's anything like my Donnie. I'll talk to him after we go save the guys." Leo frowned, and opened his mouth to object to this, but someone else beat him to it.</p>
<p>    "It's daytime." Raphael deadpanned, speaking to her for the first time since the rooftop. "You're gonna have to wait until tonight."</p>
<p>    "We're waiting twelve hours?!" She exclaimed, turning to Leo to confirm, "But- They're in trouble now, we gotta save them!" </p>
<p>    "We can't risk being seen, April. We won't be any help to them getting our existence revealed or getting captured." Leonardo shook his head, "We need to take this time to plan and then rest, and we'll go get them back when it's dark again."</p>
<p>    "Yeah, Splinter and Leo are real strict on the no going out in the daytime rule," Mikey complained as though his eldest brother weren't there. "You're not gonna get them to budge on that. It's booooorrrinnnggg." He ignored the look Leo shot him.</p>
<p>    "Ugh..." April groaned, leaning back against the steps, "Then I'll go, I don't have to worry about being seen."</p>
<p>    "Oh, so you know the locations of the Kraang facilities in this universe? You know how everything works here?" Raphael taunted, being met with a harsh glare from both April and Leo. He rolled his eyes and returned to the comic he was holding, but probably not actually reading. April sighed.</p>
<p>    On one hand, she knew they were right about how dangerous it was for them to go out now. April hardly knew these strange turtles, and it wasn't like they owed her or her boys their lives—asking them to risk everything for her impatience really wasn't fair. But on the other hand, these were her brothers who were in trouble, for goodness sake! She couldn't just leave them in the hands of the Kraang. She needed to get them home and safe, as soon as possible. She couldn't just sit down here for another day doing nothing... </p>
<p>    A hand on her shoulder pulled her from her thoughts.</p>
<p>    "We'll get them back, April," Leo said, sitting closer than before. "Why not go talk to Donnie, and then get some rest? I'll set up a spare bed out here for you after you're done."</p>
<p>    April smiled in appreciation. </p>
<p>    "Alright, yeah, I'll do that..." She agreed, standing up. "But we're leaving the second the sun sets tonight, you hear me? I'm not gonna leave them to those creeps any longer than I have to. Understand?" Leo did, and nodded. April was quite pleased with this, "Good. Don't think I won't beat your butts if you don't!"</p>
<p>    As she walked off, Leo went to grab a spare air mattress they had started keeping around for their April, or sometimes even Casey. He still remembered when the unopened box sat in their closet when they were young, and all four of the turtles wondered why they even owned it—would there ever be a chance to use it? It had seemed like such a useless item back then... but now, Leo was glad Splinter had taken it on one of his early scavenging missions all those years ago.. </p>
<p>    Leo walked back into the main room with the box in his hand and a blanket thrown over his shoulder. He internally groaned when Raph sent him a glare, but didn't even bother to let Raph speak. Two could play at this game.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, yeah, I know," Leo rolled his eyes, laying the mattress down and setting up the air pump. "You still don't trust her, you don't trust me, and you hate everything about this. Got anything else new to tell me?"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, actually, I do," Raph replied, "Letting her walk around the lair unmonitored is a horrible idea."</p>
<p>    "Dude, she's just going to Donnie's lab," Mikey said, "What's the big deal?"</p>
<p>    "Well I'm sorry if I don't exactly trust Leo's judgement on people." Raphael spat, and Leo's eyes widened. </p>
<p>    So <em>that</em> was what this was really about. He should've known. Raphael never trusted people at first, but this was on a whole different level. Of course it wasn't really about April.</p>
<p>    "Is this about Karai?" Leonardo demanded. Raph didn't even bother to look up from his comic.</p>
<p>    "I don't know, Leo, is it?"</p>
<p>    "Seriously, Raphael?" Leonardo stood up, dropping the pump. "Karai is a victim too! She got completely betrayed by the Shredder, and who cares if she fought us for a while? She's paying the price now—she's a giant, mindless snake! She's lost in the city doing who knows what! Why are you still giving me shit for her, Raph, what's the point?"</p>
<p>    Well excuse me if I'm still pissed that the last time you brought some human into the lair, she ended up having a tracker on her for the Foot," Raphael growled, finally setting his comic down. He stood up. "Excuse me if I don't want that to happen again. You're too quick to trust, Leo!"</p>
<p>    "Some people are good, Raphael, some people need our help," Leonardo argued, standing directly in front of his brother now. Raph met him head on.</p>
<p>    "And some people aren't."</p>
<p>    "Woah, woah, guys, come on," Mikey said, pushing himself between them with a hand on each of his brothers' plastrons, a make shift barrier in the middle. "Let's just cool it down-"</p>
<p>    "No!" Raph shouted, pointing an accusing finger towards Leo, "If you wanna go trust every pretty girl you see with a sob story, then be my guest. Is this Karai round two, Leo? You gonna get us all into trouble just because, what, do you think she's hot or something? You wanna go save her? Be a hero?"</p>
<p>    "Are you serious right now?" Leonardo demanded, shoving Raph back harshly, "What is wrong with you?! The Kraang are going to attack us and she's our only lead right now. You want to just ignore that?!"</p>
<p>    "Since when are they <em>not</em> attacking us? We'll deal with it, just like we always do." Raph clenched his jaw, "And when this girl gets us into trouble, just like Karai did, you're gonna see." He shook his head, all but growling as he turned around and walked away. "I'm out of here."</p>
<p>    "Raph, wait-" Leo started, but Raph was already storming off to his room. The slam of the door echoed across the halls. Leo briefly wondered if he'd break his door one of these days, but chose not to say anything. He was just as angry—if he called after his brother to lecture him on that, they'd probably end up in another fight. Physical, this time.</p>
<p>    He felt Mikey put a hand on his shoulder, probably in an effort to comfort him, but Leo shoved it off and trudged back to his own bedroom. Feeling a little guilty, he stopped at his door with one hand on the frame, and turned back to Mikey. He nodded a quick appreciation. Mikey smiled slightly back, letting him know he knew he didn't mean anything by it—he never did, and Leo hated that his little brother was used to it. He noticed that the younger turtle had finished setting up April's bed; he must've finished that while they were fighting. He made a note to thank him later.</p>
<p>    Leonardo shut his door behind him, and began to meditate. </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    If there was one thing Leo was right about, it was how Donnie would react to the reality of the multiverse.</p>
<p>    Mostly. He was technically right that he was going to "geek out", but even that was an insane understatement of just how excited Donnie really was. It was a mystery how he'd managed to contain his excitement throughout the whole walk back to the lair, or how he didn't just burst apart at the seams from just thinking about it. His heart was pounding and the amount of adrenaline he was running on was more than any fight he'd ever been in. </p>
<p>    "It's real, oh my god, if you're telling the truth, then the multiverse is real!" Donnie shouted, typing rapidly at his computer as he scrolled through some various data. His eyes were enormous, as was the gap-toothed smile on his face, and he was practically vibrating with excitement. "Alternate universes have been a theory in the scientific community for years, but this is on a whole different level! Interdimensional travel?! That's even... I didn't even think that if this was true, tha- that that would be even possible!"</p>
<p>    Other April watched Donnie from a feet away with an amused smile. Donnie distantly knew she was probably comparing him to her Donnie, but he couldn't find it in himself to care or even ask about his other self. This was much bigger than their small group, after all! Being able to meet himself and his brothers in an alternate dimension was big news, sure, but this... the simple fact that this was real was so much more exciting. The implications were amazing. </p>
<p>    This could be a discovery that changed the entire fate of the world as they knew it. </p>
<p>    Donnie stopped abruptly to spin around in his chair, arms thrown up in excitement, "This is amazing! I gotta run some tests as soon as I can, and then I'm gonna need some of your DNA to make sure your body isn't reacting badly to being in a new dimension—I can't believe I just said that. I'm talking with someone from another dimension, an alternate dimension April is standing in my lab and interdimensional travel is real!"</p>
<p>    "You alright there, Donnie?" April laughed, happy that another turtle believed her. "You need a minute?"</p>
<p>    "I'm gonna need a lot longer than a minute!" The turtle returned to typing rapidly on his computer, "We're gonna need to check out the Kraang base you escaped from sometime, too, I wanna see the tech they're using to create portals like this. If they used them to just open up a portal to kidnap you guys, then they must have had this technology for a while already—there's no way they created it just for this purpose, not with everything else they're trying to get done. There's just too much to do... I wonder what other parallel dimensions they've been to!"</p>
<p>    "They did seem really advanced with their tech," April mused, "Even my Donnie was impressed. Said their stuff could probably put Draxum's inventions to shame."</p>
<p>    "I have no idea who that is but oh my god they must have been testing it earlier this month!!" Donnie exclaimed suddenly, hitting the palm of his hand with the bottom of his other fist as he made the connection, "About a week ago, I got some strange readings from one of the labs, and I just checked the same scanner and those exact same energy levels came from the building yesterday, in the early morning."</p>
<p>    "So they already came to our dimension before they kidnapped us?" April asked, "Last week?" How did her Donnie miss that? Wasn't he constantly monitoring, like, everything?</p>
<p>    This Donnie nodded. "I'm guessing they were testing out what your dimension was like. I just hope they didn't do anything last week over there besides just seeing if the portal was working properly... Hopefully they didn't kidnap anyone else or take anything important, or leave any Kraang there." Donnie paused suddenly. "Oh, shoot, sorry, I've been rambling. I forgot to ask, but are you feeling okay?"</p>
<p>    April blinked. "Uh, yeah? I mean, I think I'm shaking a bit since I'm still high off adrenaline after being kidnapped, watching my brothers get mind controlled, meeting alternate versions of them, and freaking out over whether we'll ever get home. But besides, that I think I'm okay?"</p>
<p>    "That's good—not that all that happened to you!" Donnie quickly corrected himself, rambling again, "That's awful and we're gonna fix it, I promise, but I mean it's good that there's no other symptoms!"</p>
<p>    "What do you mean by that?"</p>
<p>    "Well," Donnie tapped a pencil against his chin as he grabbed a sheet of paper, "I don't know much about this whole thing yet, but I'm just hoping there's no side effects from your body being in an entirely new universe. If the Kraang are planning on using alternate-us as a long term weapon, there probably wouldn't be, but I just wanted to make sure."</p>
<p>    She nodded slowly, coming over to sit on the corner of Donnie's desk. The earlier excitement had mostly faded from the atmosphere by now, at least for her, and the human's face had saddened. She spoke softly, worriedly, as she asked her next question. </p>
<p>    "The mind control thing isn't permanent, is it? We can get them back?"</p>
<p>    Donnie set down his pencil, looking up to meet April's eyes. Though she was young, her eyes carried decades worth of concern for something that had only happened less than 24 hours before, and he instantly felt sympathy for her. It was the same pain April held in her eyes when her dad went missing, on a new face, but still so familiar. Donnie didn't have the same connection with this April as he did with his own, but he still felt a certain kind of fellowship with her, like he was safe. Maybe they were close no matter what dimension, and that was a law of the multiverse. Whatever Raphael believed about her was wrong; Donnie knew she was telling the truth. He rushed to reassure her.</p>
<p>    "Of course. Our April's dad was controlled with the same device, or at least something similar. We got it off him and he was completely back to normal. They'll be fine."</p>
<p>    April sighed in relief, "Oh, thank god. I need them to get back to their normal selves so I can beat the green off them for worrying me like this!" She pointed to Donnie, "And you know who I'm getting first? Leonardo! That big idiot locked me in a closet to pull his stupid hero stunt and got captured! I could've helped!"</p>
<p>    Donnie laughed. "Okay, I know you said earlier that our Leo was nothing like yours, but that's totally something he'd do too." April groaned.</p>
<p>    "Well, whatever! Universal Leo genes or not I'm still gonna beat his butt. He'll be sorry!" They both laughed, and then April looked over to Donnie, silent. He frowned. </p>
<p>    "What?"</p>
<p>    "You're a lot different from my Donnie too," She said, "He's a lot more sarcastic, and kinda a theater kid—don't tell him I said that though—but you're both huge nerds overall. Guess that's the universal Donnie gene."</p>
<p>    "You keep saying we're really different from your guys," Donnie said, curiousity winning out. "So what are they like?"</p>
<p>    "You really wanna know?" April asked, grinning mischievously, an odd look on her face. Donnie hesitated, but nodded slowly, sensing a catch. April smiled.</p>
<p>    "Well, if you wanna know, you're just gonna have to get them back sooner. Sooner you help get them here, safe, sooner you get to meet 'em."</p>
<p>    "Hey, that's not fair!" Donnie objected, and April laughed more as she stood up and made her way to the lab's exit.</p>
<p>    "Leo said he was gonna set out a place for me to sleep out there, so I'm gonna go do that. See ya, D."</p>
<p>    Donnie watched as she left, waving goodbye, and then frowned. He felt like he was forgetting something, but couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was.</p>
<p>    He'd spoken to new April and had gotten a bit more information on the situation. He discovered that the Kraang had already traveled to that dimension at least once before last week. He'd collected some more data and made up a couple theories on the implications of the multiverse... He was still working on a few things, but what was he missing?</p>
<p>    A buzz from his phone tore him away from his thoughts. He gasped as he read who the sender was from.</p>
<p>    He'd forgotten to tell <em>his</em> April about New April.</p>
<p>    The text was a photo of a man he didn't recognize talking in front of a dry erase board, taken from a strange angle that told him April probably wasn't supposed to be taking any photos at that moment. He frowned, and read the text below.</p>
<p>    "<em>Saw my teacher's shirt and thought of u</em>" the text read, and Donnie looked at the shirt in the photo, and chuckled. </p>
<p><em>    I make bad chemistry puns, but only periodically</em>, it read, and Donnie sent back a quick laughing emoji reply before setting down his T-Phone. He probably would've enjoyed the joke a lot more if it weren't for his current circumstances. Should he tell April about April? Of course, she'd find out eventually, and he completely planned on letting her know before she came down to the lair only to find a girl of the same identity staying with them, but should he tell her now? Donnie knew her; if she heard about the situation, she'd probably slip out of school and head down here immediately to figure out what was going on. </p>
<p>    Her grades were already slipping after missing so much school, and she was stressed enough... Though she insisted it wasn't their fault, Donnie knew this at least partially had to do with them. Okay, fine. It mostly was because of them. Donnie didn't want to be the cause of another failed exam—this wasn't life or death yet anyways, it could wait. He settled on waiting until 3 PM, and then giving her a call to let her know everything that happened. That would be the responsible thing to do. It'd keep her from having to sneak out of school and miss more lessons, and it would still let her know of the situation within a reasonable time. 3 in the afternoon would be the equivalent of around the middle of the night for his nocturnal family, but.... He wasn't going to be getting much sleep that night, anyways, so he'd be awake.</p>
<p>    Another all-nighter would be fine, probably. His mind was moving a mile a minute anyways. There was no way he was going to be getting any sleep after a discovery like this. Who would?</p>
<p>    A sudden voice shook him from his thoughts.</p>
<p>    "Yo Donnie, I realized another similarity between you and D." April called, appearing in his doorway once again. Donnie frowned.</p>
<p>    "What?"</p>
<p>    "Neither of you sleep," She said, "So go to bed! I've known a Donnie long enough to know that you were just planning on pulling another all-nighter, weren't you?" The guilty and surprised look on his face told her all she needed to know. Nevertheless, he shook the expression from his face and folded his arms across his plastron.</p>
<p>    "Well, excuse me for wanting to figure out this crazy situation of yours out before morning, and excuse me for being a little bit sleepless at finally getting proof one of the craziest scientific theories ever created is a reality," He sarcastically spat. April nodded.</p>
<p>    "You're excused." She said, smirking. Donnie groaned, and returned to his work. The grin slipped from her face, "You're not going to sleep, are you?"</p>
<p>    "Nope."</p>
<p>    "Hmm... Alright. I'm gonna go let Mikey know that you gave him full permission to do whatever he wants in your lab, then." She said, and then without another word walked off. Donnie ignored her obvious lie until he heard a distant "<em>Hey Mikey!</em>" coming from the main room. He was out of his seat less than a second later, shouting in panic.</p>
<p>    "Wait, no, stop! I'll sleep, I'll sleep!!"</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Trusted, Past Tense</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>April meets April, and a battle between alternate selves.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay, I KNOW I said updates every Saturday. But this fic got so much support that I never expected and you guys got me overexcited!!! So think of this as my thank you: here is an extra chapter update :P<br/>But after this, only updates on Saturdays!!! If I could, I'd be publishing stuff everyday, but I can't write that fast lol. So after this, only Saturdays! At least, until I finish the fic. I like to write ahead so once I had the entire fic written I'll probably switch to twice a week updates, but that won't be happening for a while—I got a LOT more to write. Hang in tight, this fic is gonna be a long one.</p>
<p>Enjoy this chapter guys!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    "What the hell, Donnie!? Why didn't you tell me about this?!"</p>
<p>    April O'Neil, the one who was currently standing in her own universe, shouted. She was livid—but who wouldn't be? Though there was no official friendship handbook out there, April had assumed that it would be a given that if your friends met you from another dimension, you would be the first person they'd tell. It just made sense. Why the four brothers had decided to wait half a day was beyond her; April knew if she was in their place, their T-Phones would be ringing within five minutes. </p>
<p>    So yes, April O'Neil was quite upset.</p>
<p>    "You were in school!" Donnie exclaimed, "I didn't want you to have to miss more class!"</p>
<p>    With eyes darting back and forth between her alternate self and the purple turtle, the girl couldn't decide whether she wanted to yell at Donnie some more or properly meet herself first. Her gaze finally settled on Donnie, and she chose the first option. </p>
<p>    "Are you out of your mind?!" April demanded, staring at Donnie as though he were crazy. "You seriously thought I would rather sit in class balancing chemical equations over <em>meeting myself from another dimension</em>?" She paused briefly, but interrupted just as Donnie opened his mouth to answer. "Obviously I would choose the second option, Donnie, who the hell wouldn't?!"</p>
<p>    Raph chuckled, "She's got a point there, Don." He was met with April spinning around to switch the victim of her lecture to him, though Mikey and Leo also took the brunt of the yelling.</p>
<p>    "Oh, don't think that you three aren't off the hook either. You all have my number! You all should have told me!"</p>
<p>    Mikey pouted. "I was gonna tell you, but I broke my T-Phone again and Leo said it was fine 'cause Donnie probably told you already. I would've told you if he didn't say that!"" </p>
<p>    Leo glared, and Mikey laughed nervously, but didn't retract his statement. April sighed.</p>
<p>    "Okay, well, Mikey's off the hook. But the rest of you-" </p>
<p>    "Hey, don't be too harsh on them."</p>
<p>    April paused when she heard herself, or her alternate self, speak. The Other April began to speak calmly.</p>
<p>    "There's been a lot happening and I know everyone is stressed. I'm sure Donnie was always planning on telling you sooner or later," She chuckled, "Come on, you know how he is. He runs on his own clock; my Donnie is the same."</p>
<p>    April paused, looking over to aforementioned turtle, who smiled guiltily in return. She visibly deflated, sighing as she turned around to face her alternate self, and smiled meekly.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, I know he would have, but eventually is the key word there." She held out a hand. "I'm, uh, April O'Neil. Nice to meet you."</p>
<p>    Other April laughed. "Ay, what a coincidence, I'm April too," She joked, grabbing her hand and shaking it firmly. "Pleased to meet ya too, Miss O'Neil."</p>
<p>    "Oh, thank god..." Donnie sighed loudly in relief, over... something. One of the Aprils raised a brow, and the other spoke.</p>
<p>    "Uh, thank god for...?"</p>
<p>    Donnie chuckled nervously. "I, uh, I'm just glad you two physically interacting didn't tear a hole in space and time or something. I was a little worried about that, hoping it wasn't going to end the world and erase us all from existence or something."</p>
<p>    "What?!" Both Aprils shouted, while Mikey yelped in fear and latched onto Raph's arm. Leo stared at him like he was crazy.</p>
<p>    "That was a possibility?!" The leader exclaimed, "Donnie, why the hell wouldn't you tell us that?!"</p>
<p>    "I didn't want to worry you guys over nothing!" Donatello replied, holding his hands up in surrender, yet arguing his point anyways, "There was only a .0000052 percent chance of anything going wrong, so I figured it was fine! Chances were we'd be fine, and we are."</p>
<p>    "With our luck?" Raphael raised a brow ridge, Mikey still attached at his side. "Seriously, Donnie? I'm surprised something ten times worse didn't happen. You know how our lives are." Mikey nodded in agreement.</p>
<p>    "Guys, come on, we're fine!" Donnie defended. "If it was gonna go like that, then the Kraang probably wouldn't be using alternate us to attack us. Fighting usually involves contact, right? The Kraang aren't that reckless."</p>
<p>    Neither April was having any of it, however.</p>
<p>    "You can't just rely on that-"</p>
<p>    "Seriously Donnie? Why would you-"</p>
<p>    "They've been wrong before-"</p>
<p>    "Do you know how bad that could've ended-"</p>
<p>    "You just-"</p>
<p>    Leo stood back, cutting in when necessary, but for the most part was just happy to watch. He sort of understood why Donnie didn't say anything, but at the same time, he needed to know when threats like that were possible. He agreed that Donatello should've shared that little bit of information, so he let the Aprils yell at him for a bit. Raphael and Mikey stood farther back from the group, watching quietly. Mikey turned his head to look over his shoulder and off into the distance. He frowned.</p>
<p>    "Hey, Raph?"</p>
<p>    "What?" The red turtle looked down at his younger brother, who had since separated himself from his panicked side hug. Mikey looked vaguely concerned, though mostly lost in thought.</p>
<p>    "Remember when New April said that her turtles were mind controlled?" Mikey asked, "I just wanted to check, but that means they're evil right now, right?"</p>
<p>    "Uh," Raphael frowned, wondering where he was going with this. "Yeah, why?"</p>
<p>    "And they're probably gonna try and kill us?"</p>
<p>    "That was what she said, yeah."</p>
<p>    "Oh, okay," Mikey nodded. "That's good to know, good to know..."</p>
<p>    Raphael was just about to ask what he was talking about, when Mikey suddenly spoke again.</p>
<p>    "Well, in that case..."</p>
<p>    Mikey yelled out as he jumped onto and pulled Raphael down to the ground, just as a chain whipped across the air where the top of Raph's head had been only moments before. He hit the ground hard, but alive, groaning and mumbling a quick thanks to his little brother. The sound alerted the rest of the group to look in their direction, and their gasps were nearly as loud as the ringing in his ears.</p>
<p>    Raph looked up slowly, and almost wished he didn't.</p>
<p>    Having just jumped from a neighboring building, landing silently and slowly rising to his feet, was another turtle. Shadows covered him completely, leaving only the glint of moonlight reflecting off of the chain he was carrying visible. Raph blinked. His eyes glowed white, but he was practically invisible otherwise, and Raphael couldn't get a good view of him.</p>
<p>    The turtle took a step forward, lit up fully by the moonlight. At first glance he seemed as nonthreatening as ever. Natural, pale orange markings covered the green on his shoulders, his muscles lean and body having a very small frame overall—he was certainly the youngest individual currently standing on the rooftop. He wore orange kneepads with doodled faces on them and an orange mask to match, and he had some kind of brightly colored stickers or paint on the corners of plastron, creating a very childlike and fun look for himself. All of this made him seem like a young, creative and innocent kid. Not someone to be feared.</p>
<p>    But there was a manic grin on his face, unnatural and much too wide. His head cocked to the side as he spun the chains of his kusari-fundo around and around, faster and faster, but not quite moving to attack just yet. He watched them, with eyes too wide and pupils too small and unfocused.</p>
<p>   Raphael had never met the kid, but he could already tell; this wasn't right, and something was definitely wrong with him. Maybe this Other April was telling the truth.</p>
<p>    Speaking of April O'Neil... </p>
<p>    The girl's face had twisted into one of complete and utter horror, eyes widening as she watched the turtle take a step forward still spinning the chain. A shiver ran down her spine. Her voice came out in a broken whisper as she looked at her young friend.</p>
<p>    "Mikey?"</p>
<p>    "Heyyy April!" He called out, waving happily to her, but the movements were stiff. He wasn't meeting her eyes. No, his gaze was locked on the turtles, looking at each of them before finding his other self. He let his gaze stay on him. Eyes frozen, he still addressed April. "Wish I could stay to chat, April, but I got something I gotta get done first, 'kay?"</p>
<p>    "Ha... ha..." The now sane in comparison Michelangelo chuckled awkwardly, shrinking under the other orange turtle's gaze, "This is a joke, right? Come on, dude, very fun- Woah!"</p>
<p>    He leapt up to dodge the second swing of the weapon, flipping back and landing on his feet. "Hey! Not cool!" He shouted, as his alternate self ran towards him, laughing manically. "Come on, Me! I don't wanna fight you!"</p>
<p>    "That sounds like a you problem!" Controlled-Mikey exclaimed, smile wide. He dodged a hit when Michelangelo swung at him with his own nunchucks, lowering himself to the ground, and sweeping his feet out from under him with a well timed kick. His opponent groaned, and Mikey laughed again. But he soon found himself face to face with two quite angry older brothers.</p>
<p>    Leonardo and Raphael stood in front of Michelangelo, rushing into battle with his alternate self with a shout. Mikey dodged their swings easily—even when the first Mikey got back up to join the fight as well. </p>
<p>    "Dang, you guys aren't that great!" Mikey exclaimed, giggling, "Why not try to hit me? You scared?"</p>
<p>    Though they weren't scared, exactly, controlled Mikey was correct in his taunting that they weren't trying to hit him too badly. They were focused more on the defending and disarming, while this Mikey just wanted to hurt them. The problem was, he shared the same speed and love for acrobatics as their own Michelangelo did, and he was <em>good</em> at evading their strikes. They were at quite the disadvantage in that aspect. </p>
<p>    Across the rooftop, the one remaining brother stood with the two Aprils, watching. Donnie's eyes were wide and he stayed still; he was always one to observe the situation before jumping in, when time permitted. This was one of those times. </p>
<p>    "Look at his neck," Donnie hissed out, "It's the same thing Mr. O'Neil had on him. April was telling the truth."</p>
<p>    "I told you!" Other April exclaimed, but her words lacked bite. Her voice was unsteady and nearly shook as much as her hands did when she pointed to the young turtle, "That... D, he shouldn't be acting like this. That's not the Mikey I know so why is he acting like this?! I thought mind control was-"</p>
<p>    "It doesn't turn you into a robot," The red-haired April said slowly, "I... My dad was able to act like himself for a long time, like there was nothing wrong. None of us knew he was being controlled."</p>
<p>    "It doesn't turn you into a mindless slave," Donnie agreed, pulling out his staff, "It just changes your goals so all you want to do is serve the Kraang. That's what Kirby said; you still got to think for yourself on some sort of base level, but the only desire you had anymore was to do what they said. And in this Mikey's case... that's to destroy us, I guess? If he tries to have fun with his missions usually, then he will now too since that's just how the Kraang designed the device."</p>
<p>    "He-" April's eyes were locked on the Mikey, the innocent and fun loving boy she had known for so many years. Her face twisted, horrified and disbelieving. "It can't be- No, he wouldn't do-"</p>
<p class="">    Blue eyes met brown ones as April put both her hands on the other April's shoulders, speaking firmly, "We know it isn't your Mikey, April. That device turns you into a darker version of yourself. He looks like he's having fun with it, but once the guys get the machine off of him, he'll be back to himself. We know it's not him. It's gonna be okay."</p>
<p class="">    "I..." April shook her head, eyes squeezed shut behind her glasses. She gave herself one more moment before looking back up with a new, fierce and determined look. "I know. He... We need to get that off of him, pronto."</p>
<p>    Other Mikey was putting up quite a fight now, with moves more impressive than April had seen on him before (she wondered why, and made a note to ask him about it later. Maybe the Kraang were causing him to be more focused on this than on any mission he'd ever had before?). Even so, she knew he was no match for four ninjas. She watched with horror as Donnie got ready to join the fight and quickly stopped him, grabbing him by the arm.</p>
<p>    "Wait," She hurried, "You guys just... don't hurt him too badly, okay? It's not his fault and he's still a kid. He's only thirteen. Be careful."</p>
<p>    Donnie froze for a second, but then nodded solemnly. "Don't worry, he'll be okay. We just gotta hold him down so I can get the device off his neck."</p>
<p>    With those words, he took off towards the fight.</p>
<p>    "Ha!" Controlled Mikey shouted, flipping over Leo as he came after him, landing on Raphael's shoulders, pulling him down to the ground. He dodged a swing from his counterpart's nunchucks and a simultaneous blow from Donnie's bo as he did yet another flip. "You guys are slow, ya know that?"</p>
<p>    Lightning flashed across the sky. The boy frowned, caught off guard for a second to look up to the heavens. Rain started to fall. It poured down, skipping the slow start it should have had and beginning a downpour in only a matter of seconds. Thunder sounded. The change of weather didn't distract him for long, only a split second, but it was enough.</p>
<p>    Michelangelo swung again and this time, the chain wrapped around the younger boy's arm. The controlled Mikey tugged, but the chain refused to release its grip on him. Michelangelo grinned and yanked the chain towards him, sending the mind controlled turtle flying to the ground besides him. He called out to his brothers, "Guys, grab him!"</p>
<p>    The box turtle grunted as he landed on his plastron, and quickly rose to his knees. He wasn't fast enough; before he could blink, he was shoved back to the ground as Leo and Raph held down his arms, effectively pinning him on his stomach. Leo and Raph tightened their hold on his arms so he couldn't use the water from the rain to slip away.</p>
<p>    "Let go of me!" He shouted angrily, twisting and pulling, but he was outmatched. Donnie ran over and knelt besides his head.</p>
<p>    The device sat on the back of his neck, silver and blinking a bright pink light, halfway embedded in the skin. Donnie frowned, as the rain hit them harder. Was it smart to try to remove it here? With the weather and how much the Other Mikey was fighting it, the procedure would be difficult, and he didn't want to slip up and severely hurt him. It was connected to his brain―even the tiniest slip up could have dire consequences, and Donnie fully intended on keeping his promise to April. He really didn't want to harm him.</p>
<p>    "What are you waiting for?!" Raph demanded, leaning on the back of the Other Mikey's shell to keep him from getting up, since his struggling had only gotten worse. Their Mikey had taken a place in front of them, and both Aprils had joined him, and the three were trying to verbally calm down the young turtle. It wasn't going all too well. Donnie shook his head.</p>
<p>    "I don't know if I can take it out here without hurting him."</p>
<p>    "Well, what can you do?!" Leo exclaimed, "Can you disable it?"</p>
<p>    "I don't know, I- Hey!" It looked like Donnie wouldn't have to worry about what to do, since the Other Mikey had taken it upon himself to make the decision for all of them. He pulled his head into his shell. "Seriously?!"</p>
<p>    "Hey, that's cheating!" Their Mikey exclaimed. Donnie groaned as he heard the Other Mikey blow a raspberry from inside his shell. He had effectively guarded the mind control device; unless he came out of his shell, there was no way Donnie could get it off now.</p>
<p>    "Okay, well, what do we do now?" April asked, ponytail lose and red hair soaked with rain. "Take him back to the lair?"</p>
<p>    "That'd probably be best..." Leo said, "Unless anyone has a better plan."</p>
<p>    "Oh, I think I have one."</p>
<p>    The group froze; a new voice had come from seemingly nowhere. A flash of lightning struck, a new presence appeared behind. A large shadow was cast onto the group, and they feared they knew who it may be. They slowly looked up at the newcomer, all with various expressions painted with shock and fear.</p>
<p>    It was April who spoke, a shiver running down her back as she stared at the face she once knew was only filled with love and care and kindness; It had always been that of the most gentle person she had ever known, the softest individual she'd ever met. It was the face of someone she could trust with her life. Someone she loved as a brother. He lacked the warmth he usually held, and it made April's stomach turn. She had no idea where the kindness had run off to.</p>
<p>    April hesitantly spoke, watching as the trusted face transformed into a malevolent one before her very eyes. She wasn't sure she could speak or even breathe, but she forced out a whisper anyways.</p>
<p>    "Raph?"</p>
<p>    The turtle smirked. The smile was wrong.</p>
<p>    "That's your Raphael?!" Leo shouted, shattering the frozen silence. The new Raphael had to be the size of Slash, or maybe even bigger. His teeth were sharp and shell even more so, arms bigger than their heads. Leo was distantly thankful to whatever gods were out there that that wasn't the case for his rage filled little brother, though he supposed this was worse. "Seriously?!" </p>
<p>    Their Raphael seemed just as shocked, green eyes locked on his counterpart. April tried to speak.</p>
<p>    "I-" </p>
<p>    "Let go of Mikey." The other Raph snarled, and then grinned a smile that was unrecognizable, so much unlike the gentle one April knew. "Or don't, that could be more fun, doing things the hard way. Raph likes a challenge."</p>
<p>    "Sorry Pal, not a chance." It was their Raphael that snapped back, standing up and leaving Leo to keep a hold on the controlled Michelangelo. He spun his sais around before gripping them tightly, standing and facing the tall snapping turtle. "He's coming with us, and so are you."</p>
<p class="">    The controlled Raph let off something close to a growl, fists raised. Donnie jumped in to defend his brother from his counterpart at the last second, and the two began a battle neither were sure they could win. </p>
<p class="">    "Mikey, Aprils, keep an eye on him!" Leo shouted, shoving the now fully in his shell controlled-Mikey towards the three. They all nodded firmly and kept a hold on him, making sure he wouldn't pop out and run off. Leonardo held his swords tightly and joined the fight. </p>
<p class="">    Screaming and shouting began, this new Raphael fighting with all he had. Mikey watched anxiously, fists clenched ever so tightly on the handles of his chucks, itching to join the fight too.</p>
<p class="">    Leo dodged and swiped at controlled Raph's arm, missing narrowly and getting hit in the chest instead. He landed on his feet and Donnie came up behind him, flipping over and landing a clean hit to the snapper's head. Donatello laughed in triumph, but it backfired when the large turtle grabbed his bo and used it to fling Donnie across the roof, slamming into Leo and knocking both of them down. The new Raph laughed.</p>
<p class="">    "You guys aren't so tough, are you?" He taunted, slowly approaching them. A maniacal smile on his face, eyes wide. He was enjoying this. Leo and Donnie grimaced, rising to their feet and watching him carefully. Raph took a step towards them—he would complete the mission Kraang had given him. He'd make sure of it. Two turtles were already down, so how hard could it be?</p>
<p class="">    He raised his fist.</p>
<p class="">    "Oh no, you don't!" The controlled Raphael didn't realize he was coming at him until it was too late. He turned around just in time for their Raph's foot to land directly on the side of his face, kicking him and sending him falling back onto his side. Raphael landed on his feet and smirked at his fallen counterpart. </p>
<p class="">    "You ain't so tough yourself," He said, still grinning, "Why not pick on yourself for a change?"</p>
<p class="">    The other Raph was back on his feet only a moment later, rubbing the side of his face; that was going to leave a bruise. He stood firm, across from his counterpart, and the two circled each other for several moments. The wind turned cold. The Raphaels may have been counterparts, but they were their own individuals, different in a million different ways that their families could name off in their sleep. If it weren't for the matching red and names, some would never make the connection that they were doubles.</p>
<p class="">    But in this moment, the same cruel aggression on both of their faces, they were one and the same. </p>
<p class="">    With matching snarls and clenched fists, they charged.</p>
<p class="">    Kick, slash, punch—bruises formed everywhere. One Raph threw a punch and the other blocked, sending a kick their way before the motions were reversed. Two raw, aggressive, passionate forces of nature colliding; the two were equally matched. </p>
<p class="">    Unlike Mikey, who had tried to talk his other self out of battle, Raph spared his counterpart no mercy; controlled or not, he was the enemy right now. He could make time for friendliness later. He poured all he had into the battle, shouting and using his full force, going for the kill on many occasions (he knew his other self could block it anyways). His counterpart spared no mercy either, fighting just as hard. The battle waged on.</p>
<p class="">    But one thing Raphael had on his side, that his controlled other self evidently did not, was two brothers still in the fight.</p>
<p class="">    As Raph dodged a kick from the snapper, Leo came in from above and swung his sword. The other Raph blocked it with the side of his tonfas, but was met with another hit in the head from Donnie's bo. Raphael kicked, Donatello swung, Leonardo sliced, and they backed the snapper to the edge of the rooftop.</p>
<p class="">    Leonardo took a running leap and prepared to land another blow on the large turtle. He would strike him again, and the snapper would fall off the roof and land hard enough to be knocked unconscious. He would be hurt and there would be blood, but they had to take him down; Donnie could patch him up later. That was the plan.</p>
<p class="">    Leo raised his swords.</p>
<p class="">    "Don't hurt him!" A scream came from behind, as the other April pleaded, hand outstretched. Leo spared a glance towards her, and that was all fate asked for. The accidental distraction was enough. </p>
<p class="">    Other Raph slid away from the edge, and raised his fist before anyone knew what was happening. His fist collided harshly with Raphael's plastron, moving faster than anyone could believe—Raphael had no time to fight back. One, two, three fatal strikes, and then another. The snapper raised his foot, and swung at his smaller counterpart, sending him hurtling back before anyone realized what was happening. </p>
<p class="">    Raphael slammed into the wall of the opposite building, leaving a cracked intent in the brick behind as he fell. He gasped and his eyes fell shut. A second later, he dropped down to the fire escape below, landing on his shell, where he stayed.</p>
<p class="">    Motionless.</p>
<p class="">    "Raph!" Mikey didn't think, running across the rooftop to reach his older brother. April tried to call out for him, but it was too late. The controlled Mikey took the opportunity to pop out of his shell, and race to his own older brother's side. </p>
<p class="">    "That was fun!" The young turtle laughed, climbing on top of Raph's shoulders. "We should do that again!"</p>
<p class="">    "Oh, dontcha worry, Mikey," Controlled Raph grinned. His mask had torn a bit from where Leo's swords had cut it, and his cheek was bruised greatly. He wiped blood from his snout, mouth still twisted into a cruel smile. "We will."</p>
<p class="">    Leonardo watched in horror, looking back and forth between the two turtles, his own brothers, and the Aprils. His Raph wasn't moving, his Mikey nearly in tears, his Donnie dazed, his April horrified, and the newest April hyperventilating. He couldn't think straight.</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    Did they just lose?</em>
</p>
<p class="">    "We'll see you guys soon!" Mikey's joyful shout caught their attention, "See ya April! We still need to finish our game, you know. But we can do that later, I guess."</p>
<p class="">    April didn't reply. She couldn't.</p>
<p class="">    Mikey waved once more, and Raph turned around. The two disappeared into the night. Leo's breath hitched as his question was answered.</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    They lost.</em>
</p>
<p class=""> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Fight scenes are hard!!!!! Especially when they're against people with the same name... hopefully you guys got what happened though. </p>
<p>But yeah, Rise! Raph and Mikey have entered the scene! More to come on those two later.</p>
<p>Anyways, as always, comments are appreciated! And if you have questions about the story or something feel free to shoot me an ask over on Tumblr @Nostalgiaruinedme . Those are fun to answer.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Through the Portal, Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay, two things I need to comment on!! </p>
<p>1) This chapter has been broken down into two parts purely for formatting purposes. I had it all written as one but I just REALLY liked how the first half of the chapter ended, even though I still had another few thousand words to post.<br/>So I complained about it to my little sister and tried to fix it several other ways first. Including just deleting the second half, but it had too much info I think is essential to the story. Then tried to format it like three different ways before I finally accepted I needed to break it down into two parts, unfortunately. That's why I've updated two chapters this Saturday. Not cause it's two chapters, but because its one and I hate formatting it's stupid &gt;:(</p>
<p>2) @Transformersluna over on tumblr made some really cool fanart for chapter three and I'm in love with it and want you all to go show it some love too, please check it out!! It's amazing and somehow EXACTLY how I pictured Raph and Mikey standing at the end of chapter three. https://transformersluna.tumblr.com/post/644700482336653312/made-some-fanart-for-nostalgiaruinedme </p>
<p>Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b> <em>48 Hours Before.... </em> </b>
</p>
<p>    "Raph, heads up!" </p>
<p>    Leo grinned, holding up a volleyball and throwing it as hard as he could towards the sky, in his older brother's general direction. The slider had found it on a sidewalk during their patrol, abandoned by some random kids earlier that day. So of course he had stashed it away for future use. The second that patrol ended, he raced back to grab it and showed it off proudly to his team. They still had around an hour before they were going to need to head back, so Leo had decided that'd be enough time to toss the ball around for a bit, and wasn't going to take no for an answer when he suggested the idea.</p>
<p>    The argument he prepared in advance found itself to be unnecessary, however, since his brothers and April had agreed immediately. They deserved some fun and relaxation! Well, scratch the relaxation part; the gentle tossing of the ball back and forth had quickly evolved into a competitive game of D<em>on't Let the Ball Touch the Ground. </em>Complete with screaming and diving to the concrete to keep the ball in the air, it was an action packed chaotic match, one that Leo was sure he was winning. He hadn't dropped the ball once!</p>
<p>    "I got it!" Raph shouted, quickly hitting the ball back up while it was still above his head. The volleyball flew across the rooftop, before Mikey ran and jumped. He whooped and, with a double front flip, held up his hands and smacked the ball towards April. </p>
<p>    "To you, Apes!"</p>
<p>    "Heads up, Dee!" April shouted in return, before the ball even made it to her—she knew Donnie needed a couple extra seconds to prepare. She grinned and put her hands together, hitting the ball up with the sides of her closed fists. It shot off towards Donnie, who looked mildly panicked for half a second. He shook his head and then spun into action.</p>
<p>    Donnie grinned, "Oh, I got-"</p>
<p>    "I GOT IT!!" Leo sang, jumping in front of him and slapping the ball back to April. Donnie groaned, glaring at his (in theory) twin brother. </p>
<p>    "I had that!" He crossed his arms across his chest. Leo laughed.</p>
<p>    "Well if you had it, then why did I get it~?" Leonardo teased, playfully punching his brother in the shoulder. Donnie groaned and shoved him away.</p>
<p>    "Whatever. You just can't stand to be not in the spotlight for half a second, can ya, 'Nardo? Need the attention?" He sneered, shoving a finger into Leo's plastron. The blue themed turtle frowned for half a second, but then took to his natural response to insults. With a grin and double finger guns, he winked.</p>
<p>    "You know it!" </p>
<p>    Donnie rolled his eyes as he shook the insult off. Knowing Leo, he definitely did that on purpose just to annoy him. Dumb-dumb never acknowledged his insults.</p>
<p>    "Ugh, whatever," Donnie sighed, "Let's just get back to the..." He trailed off, as he turned back to their main group to see that the match had stopped. His eyes locked on the reason why. "...game..."</p>
<p>    A large, pinkish-purple swirling portal had opened up on the opposite side of the rooftop. It emitted an odd warbling sound from within, but that wasn't the strangest thing about it. No, that honor went to its shape. Usually, the portals they saw were circular or oval in shape, but this one was a perfect triangle. Sharp edges and angles, like it was cut from paper rather than a hole in the fabric of the universe to travel through. It was very weird, and no one there had ever seen one quite like it. Neither the color nor the shape looked like the familiar portals Leo could create.</p>
<p>    Regardless, four accusing looks were shot towards said brother. Leo folded his arms across his chest stubbornly.</p>
<p>    "Hey, don't look at me!" He pointed to the corner of the building, a few yards from where he was standing, "I didn't do it! I left my sword over there."</p>
<p>    "Uh, did it get the ability to make them on its own?" Raphael asked suspiciously. Leo huffed indignantly.</p>
<p>    "My portals don't look anything like that one!" He exclaimed, "Mine are blue! And circles! I can't change that!"</p>
<p>    "But wouldn't it be cool if you could?" Mikey grinned, holding his arms out, "Ooh, what if you could make them different colors?! Like pink and yellow and orange or- Oh! You could make a rainbow one!"</p>
<p>    "Michael, Buddy, if I could make them rainbow I'd have done that a LONG time ago. I promise."</p>
<p>    "Uh, guys?" April interrupted, "Not to break up this super important discussion, but I think something is coming through."</p>
<p>    "What?" Four pairs of eyes shot towards the portal again, where April was already taking a step back. The human was right; the portal was rippling out from the middle ever so slightly, like water in a pond, as something silver began to step through. All five Mad Dogs gasped as the being fully stepped through.</p>
<p>    A silver robot with glowing pink accents stood in front of the portal. Though, "robot" had to be pushing the limits of that description; it was more like the internal metal skeleton of a bot. There was nothing disguising the pieces or parts, the inner workings of the machine clear as day. It had no real "face", a head, certainly, but it only had two pink lights for eyes and a strange metal piece as something resembling a mouth. In its hands, it held a gun. But that was not the most disturbing part of the being.</p>
<p>    Where the bot's stomach would have been, if it were human, sat something pale pink in color and squishy. It was wrinkled like a brain but had a pair of closed eyes and a mouth. It may not have been moving but... it had to be alive. They all stared in horror as the robot took another step forward and two more appeared behind it, followed by more and more and more of them.</p>
<p>    "Uh, Donnie... what are those?" Leo asked hesitantly, grabbing his sword and holding it tightly. Raph and Mikey had already taken out their weapons, and April now held her wooden bat in a fierce grip.</p>
<p>    Donnie pulled out his tech bo. "I- I don't know!" He stammered, "I've never seen those guys before, but why are you asking me?! Portals are your department!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, portals, not freaky brain robots coming out of them!"</p>
<p>    "Guys, focus!" Raph shouted. Mikey paused.</p>
<p>    "Wait, what if they're friendly?" The youngest turtle suggested suddenly, ignoring the nearly two dozen guns now pointed directly at them. "We don't know who they are, maybe they're not bad guys!"</p>
<p>    April laughed nervously, "Mikey, I really don't think-" She was cut off as the bots began to speak. </p>
<p>    "The ones known as 'the turtles' have two options, known as 'the easy way' or that which is known as 'the hard way'." Their voices were monotonous and lacked emotion, sending a shiver down the group's spines. "The ones known as 'the turtles' will now come with the ones known as the 'Kraang', or will be forced to come through with ways which can be referred to as 'not pleasant'."</p>
<p>    They froze in shock for several seconds, but the quiet didn't last long. Why would it? This was the Mad Dogs they were talking to. It was Leo, as expected, who shattered the silence.</p>
<p>    "Okay uh, first, do they know English?" He asked everyone, as though the bots weren't standing right in front of him. "They're worse than Donnie with over explaining things, which is reaaaally saying something. And two, uh, I have no idea what those 'Kraang' just said. Translation?"</p>
<p>    "I think they want us to come with them through the portal," Raph said, "Or uh, something bad is gonna happen."</p>
<p>    "Like what?" Mikey asked. Raph shrugged.</p>
<p>    "I don't know. Maybe they're gonna start singing. Didn't Draxum do that once?"</p>
<p>    "Oh, yeah!" Leo enthusiastically nodded, "Todd told me about that the other day. I'm glad we weren't there because that sounds HORRIFYING. He probably sucks at singing."</p>
<p>    "Hey!" Mikey exclaimed, "Don't be mean, we haven't heard him. Maybe he's good at it!"</p>
<p>    "I don't know about that-"</p>
<p>    Donnie facepalmed and looked over to April in exasperation, who laughed nervously.</p>
<p>    "You know, I could be wrong," April said, interrupting their discussion of Draxum's predicted singing abilities. "But uh, guys? I'm gonna guess it has something to do with them shooting at us, since I think they're about to do that right now."</p>
<p>    Without another warning, the Kraang began to fire their weapons. The scene launched into chaos as lasers flew through the air and their argument was forgotten. With adrenaline filled laughter, they all drew their weapons. The battle began.</p>
<p>    "Mikey, let's go!" Michelangelo looked over to Donnie, who called out his name again and gestured upwards. Mikey grinned. He grabbed onto his brother's outstretched hand as Donnie's battleshell unfolded and they flew up, and Mikey whipped out his kusari-fundo and spun the chain around. Donnie flew across the roof and Mikey let go, dropping himself directly into the center of the madness. He laughed as he took out two droids right off the bat, another two falling in a blaze of fire quickly afterwards. Donnie joined him, and the two fought back to back. One by one, the Kraang bots began dropping to the ground.</p>
<p>    Leonardo took to launching himself straight into a group of three Kraang, who just stepped aside and let him fly off of the rooftop. Leo laughed and portalled himself back up, slicing through the three bots with ease. The three brain-things inside the bots climbed out of their destroyed armor and retreated back through their own portal with a squeal. The slider grinned, then heard the sound of the laser guns powering up.</p>
<p>    "Ha, betcha didn't see that one coming!" Leo shouted without turning to look at the new trio of Kraang behind him, making another portal and hopping through. Said group turned around, looking left and right and front and behind, trying to figure out where he'd pop out next. They didn't hear his shout until it was too late, and the blue-turtle came at them from above. <em>Slice</em>. They were down in seconds. Leo grinned, not even bothering to take out the six bots that had appeared behind him, ready with powered up blasters aimed directly at him.</p>
<p>    "Hey guys, welcome to the party," He said, finally turning around just in time to see the flash of glowing red.</p>
<p>    "Power smash jitsu!" Raphael shouted, tonfas powered up as the mystical extension of his arm plowed through all six of them with ease. The metal cracked and robot limbs flew across the roof and brain creatures climbed out or fell to their doom. Raph took a stand besides his younger brother, the two smirking at each other.</p>
<p>    "Dude, these guys are lame!" Leo laughed, watching as April smashed her bat against one of them, head flying off the roof before she moved to the next. "This is too easy. Where's the challenge?"</p>
<p>    "No idea," Raph shrugged, smashing his glowing fist into another bot. He laughed and looked at the crowd, beginning to taunt the creatures. "Hey guys, where's that 'bad thing' happening at?"</p>
<p>    "Yeah! What was it you warned us about again?" Leo sliced through the chest of another bot before taking to holding his odachi like the Kraang held their blasters. He leveled his expression, doing his best impression of the weird creatures. "The ones known as the Kraang will be forced to do what is known as 'unpleasant' for what is known as 'the hardway'." He mocked, "Where's all that at?! I could do this all day!"</p>
<p>    More bots flooded from the portal, but they were taken out easily. The Kraang creatures (Yokai? Mutants? None of those titles seemed to suit them, but they really didn't know what they were) just weren't used to dealing with mystic powers, and lacked the ability to defend against them. Mikey's flaming skull burned through their metal bodies easily, and they had no way of predicting where Leo would jump out next or how hard Raphael could hit. Donnie's tech and April's pure protective passion just added to the problem. They were winning <em>easily</em>.</p>
<p>    But the pile of metal bodies just kept building. A seemingly infinite end of soldiers marched through the glowing portal, one by one, and they had to have taken out over a hundred by now. The numbers just kept growing and growing and growing. Leo may have claimed to be able to do this all day, but even he knew that wasn't true; for what the Kraang lacked in power, they made up for in sheer numbers. The turtles' movements grew sluggish and slower, and still, the bots just kept coming.</p>
<p>    "We need to shut down the portal!" Raphael shouted, shoving a Kraang off the rooftop and knocking another one back to where it came from. "Donnie, Leo, how do we do that?!"</p>
<p>    Donnie, the expert in everything, and Leo, who had a vague understanding of how portals worked, looked at each other in mild panic. </p>
<p>    "Uh, well, what's powering it?" Leo asked, slashing through two more droids. "If you took out my sword my portals wouldn't work, so what's powering theirs? I don't see them with any mystic weapons!"</p>
<p>    Donnie scanned the battlefield, before he stared at the portal and grimaced. "I think that whatever is powering it is on the other side. Not with them here."</p>
<p>    "Aw man, we're gonna have to go in there?" April asked, "Is there anyway to uh, not do that?"</p>
<p>    "Maybe I could-"</p>
<p>    "Raphael I swear to god if you suggest smashing it-"</p>
<p>    "I don't know Don, maybe we should let 'im try it. It worked for the mirror with Mayhem."</p>
<p>    "Leo, do not encourage him!"</p>
<p>    "Portals are not physical items one can just 'smash', and you of all people should know that!"</p>
<p>    The argument waged on, but the robots kept coming. It made the youngest frown. How were they supposed to shut down a portal to who knows where without knowing what was powering it? Mikey knew Donnie was smart, but he needed data; you can't figure out an answer without knowing the full question. They had to know what was on the other side of that portal. </p>
<p>    It only took Mikey another second to confirm his decision to himself. He swung his weapon around, taking out the five droids that were currently exiting the portal, and took a deep breath. His brothers and April didn't notice that he was clearing a path until it was too late. But the second they noticed, they froze.</p>
<p>    Leo watched in horror as his baby brother jumped right into the portal. "Mikey!" He called out, hand outstretched towards him, but he was already gone. One of the Kraang took the opportunity to shoot at him again, and Leo barely dodged this time before slicing their weapon in half and kicking them off the building. </p>
<p>    "Did he just-" Donnie stuttered, eyes wide in horror. "Did he just go inside that thing?!"</p>
<p>    April shook her head in denial. "Why would he do that?! Why would he go through?!" </p>
<p>    Raphael growled</p>
<p>    "What are we waiting for?" He shouted, already breaking off into a sprint, "We gotta go after him!"</p>
<p>    Watching as Raph, Donnie, and April took off towards the portal, Leo hesitated. Any other day, he'd have argued with Raph for rushing into a portal leading to who knows where without coming up with a plan first. Rushing into things headfirst was Raph's thing, and Leo knew his own suspicion at those plans had saved their hides multiple times by now. Calling out half thought out plans was his thing. </p>
<p>    But this was different. Mikey was in unknown, enemy territory. His baby brother could be hurt, captured, tortured, or worse. </p>
<p>    Nothing else mattered besides getting him back.</p>
<p>    So Leo gripped his sword tighter, and followed them through.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    The first thing that Mikey felt was the difference in his own body.</p>
<p>    He had no idea what it was, but something had changed the instant he stepped through that portal. His tongue searched for the best word to describe the difference, but came up blank—there were no words in existence to describe this feeling. It was as though he were more... solid, or something. Mikey glanced down at his own hands, mind spinning, as he tried to perceive the odd perspective of this universe. Though he lacked the knowledge of why he was so disoriented, he hadn't been created to comprehend a world like this, and the 3rd dimension would take some getting used to. He just needed a minute.</p>
<p>    A minute which he didn't have. </p>
<p>    Mikey yelped out in pain as pain erupted across his shoulder, one of the Kraang's blasts finally hitting their target. The turtle's head spun faster, as he blinked and squinted and tried to get a good look at the Kraang, marching towards him and surrounding him on all sides; there were more of them now, at least 20 surrounding him on the spot he had collapsed on the floor. He gulped.</p>
<p>    "Heh, heh... Hey guys, why don't we just talk this out..." He chuckled, slowly reaching over with his good arm to grab the handle of his mystic weapon that he had dropped in his confusion. Just a few more inches, and he could grab it and attack... he just needed to be careful enough so they wouldn't notice.</p>
<p>    "Kraang has obtained one of those which are known as-"</p>
<p>    "Obtain this!" Michelangelo shouted, jumping to his feet. He whipped the chain out and spun it for half a second, before wrapping it around two Kraang bots in front of him. He grinned, they wouldn't be able to get out of those flames!</p>
<p>    But there was no fire.</p>
<p>    "What the-" Mikey frowned, shaking the handle slightly, muttering to his inanimate weapon, "Where'd the fire go? Why aren't you listening? Weapons not listening is supposed to be Leo's thing, stop it!"</p>
<p>    His kusari-fundo was yanked out of his hands, and Mikey gasped. He vaguely heard one of his brothers shout to him—they must have finally followed too—but he was too distracted by the weapon that was aimed directly at him. Smaller and darker in color than the blasters the other Kraang held, he somehow knew what it was before it even hit him.</p>
<p>    The tranquilizer dart hit him in the neck, and he collapsed to the ground once again. Mikey was out.</p>
<p>    Watching their brother fall to the ground, unconscious, knocked all surprise of the new world right out from the three turtles and April. Confusion was quickly replaced with anger. <em>The Kraang just took down <b>Mikey</b></em>. They didn't even notice the portal closing behind them.</p>
<p>    "Kraang, take the turtle which is the smallest to the-"</p>
<p>    "Oh, no you don't!" Raph shouted, plowing directly into the Kraang before he could even finish giving his orders. He growled when he looked off to his left, seeing several Kraang haul his youngest brother off to who knows where. More Kraang blocked his way, at least 30 or 40 of them now, and Raph tightened his grip on his tonfas. He could take them out in one punch.</p>
<p>    Or, he should have been able to. But when he went to power smash the rows and rows of bots, only his regular fist hit them, and his eyes widened in horror. He had great strength on his own, but he was not counting on fighting without mystic powers; what happened? Why weren't they working?</p>
<p>    A glance to his left told him Leo was having the exact same problem, eyes widened in panic as he loudly scolded his odachi for not working correctly, mumbling something along the lines of "<em>not now, not now, why now?</em>". Raph scowled.</p>
<p>    "Mine aren't working either Leo, something is up!" He shouted, an attempt to assure his brother it wasn't his fault, but that only seemed to freak him out more.</p>
<p>    "Yours aren't either?! Raph, this is bad, this is bad!" Leon exclaimed, pausing in his swing and nearly getting blasted too. If it weren't for Donnie's now rocket-powered bo coming in behind him and knocking out the two Kraang behind him, he'd be out of the fight too.</p>
<p>    "Uh, not to interrupt your magical freak out session with an '<em>I told you science was better</em>'," Donnie shouted, "but I told you science was better! Now stop panicking and take out these droids, they have Mikey!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, guys, let's go!" April called out, swinging her bat around a few times before launching into attack mode right besides Donnie. Leo and Raph looked to each other and nodded firmly. Mystic powers or not, their brother was still in trouble. Like hell they'd forget that now. </p>
<p>    The group of four stood firm, and began their battle again.</p>
<p>    Lasers bounced off the walls and the group dodged them narrowly, swinging and kicking and punching the droids left and right. Mikey was nowhere in sight now, taken further down the hall than they could get, but they didn't let that stop them. They were tired, powered only by adrenaline, and more and more Kraang attacked them. They forced themselves to push on—they'd find their brother even if it killed them. Even if their movements were slack and their breaths came out in pants... they had to keep moving on. For Mikey.</p>
<p>    Their exhaustion was growing, and the Kraang army showed no signs of running out. Donnie paused, trying to come up with a plan to take them all out at once, but it was this hesitation that was his downfall.</p>
<p>    "Donnie!" </p>
<p>    Leo's shouted warning wasn't heard in time, and Donnie couldn't move his arm away before two lazers hit him in the plastron. He fell back and while he was down, a dart landed itself in his thigh. His eyes widened in horror. </p>
<p>    "Leo-" He started, but his mind clouded over within seconds. The poison was fast. All of his strength left him as he dropped his staff and slumped to the ground.</p>
<p>    His tech bo hit the ground with a loud <em>clank</em>, and rolled over to Leonardo's feet. He tore his eyes away from his fallen twin's weapon just in time to see the purple turtle being carried off in the same direction as Mikey had been, unconscious and defenseless, stolen from them. Leo couldn't move. His feet were stuck to the ground, mind spinning, eyes wide. <em>They took Donnie and Mikey</em>.</p>
<p>    "Donnie, no!" Raph shouted, eyes wider than ever before. He tried to run to his brother before they could take him away, but he was hit too. One, twice... April's gasp was loud as the third and fourth darts landed in his arm, poison quadrupled, and his eyes glazed over. Raph groaned as his eyes rolled back in his head. The ground shook as he landed on the metal floors, the third turtle to fall, and was dragged away.</p>
<p>    Leonardo knew they lost. </p>
<p>    "Raph, wait, no-" April gasped, hand reaching towards him, and she readied her bat to be swung again. She was met with a hand grabbing her wrist and pulling her back. She turned around to attack whoever the hand belonged to, but found it was Leo, desperately trying to pull her away from the scene. She gaped at him. "What are you doing?!"</p>
<p>    "We have to get out of here!" He shouted, sprinting down the opposite end of the hall. April found herself being pulled along and reached out towards her unconscious friends, being dragged away to who knows where. She didn't even know if she'd ever see them again. They couldn't just leave!</p>
<p>    "But your brothers-"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>    "We'll get them back!" Leo shouted, arriving at the end of the hall and turning to the right, refusing to stop for even a second; the Kraang were hot on their tail. "But we're out numbered and if we don't get away now, they're gonna get us too, so let's go!"</p>
<p>    Though she desperately wanted to, April couldn't argue with him; she knew he was right. She could tell by the fierce grip he had on her wrist, eyes blinking rapidly as though to ward off tears, that Leo hated making this decision. He just watched all three of his brothers get taken down and dragged off by unrecognizable beings neither knew anything about—they didn't even know why the Kraang were attacking them, they hadn't ever done anything to them! Leo was acting only on instinct, only trying to keep the two of them alive... and it was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.</p>
<p>    They ran for what felt like hours, though April knew it could only have been a few short moments, dodging lasers and trying to put distance between them and the droids. Lucky for them, the bots were not fast runners, and Leo and April had the body's greatest motivation to keep their legs moving: self preservation. They ran as fast as they could, until Leo abruptly stopped, finally releasing her arm.</p>
<p>    There were metal bodies littering the ground, sliced apart and punched to death. They were running in circles. </p>
<p>    "What do we do?" April hissed, "How do we get out?" </p>
<p>    Grimacing, Leo reached down and grabbed one of the destroyed Kraang arms, and then began to run again with it in his left hand, sword in the right. April frowned, but didn't bother to ask why, and just chased after him. Leo was never a fan of sharing his plans until they were already in motion.</p>
<p>    Fairly ahead of the group of Kraang after them, Leo stopped again in front of one of the weird, closed, glowing doors of the base. April stood right behind him.</p>
<p>    "Please work, please work..." Leo whispered, shoving the dismembered robotic hands onto the scanner besides it. The lock made a soft beep, and the door opened in front of them. The two entered quickly and got the door to close just as their pursuers rounded the corner.</p>
<p>    The two held their breaths... and the group ran by without notice. </p>
<p>    Leo sighed loudly in relief, leaning back against the wall and squeezing his eyes shut. "They didn't see us."</p>
<p>    "For now..." April mumbled, "They probably have some kind of cameras or motion sensors or something... they're gonna find us eventually, Leo."</p>
<p>    "I know," He said, clenching his fists. He took several deep breaths, trying to prepare himself, and then made his way to his feet. "We should... I don't know, look around the room or something. Maybe there's something we can find out about this place."</p>
<p>    "What do you mean?" April asked, "Like, what those things are?"</p>
<p>    "Like where we even are," Leo said, taking a moment now to look at his hands, and then stared at April, "I know we've been kinda distracted but April... this isn't our home. I don't think we're in New York- no, I don't even think this is the same reality. Look at us!"</p>
<p>    April blinked. Leo was right; though she hadn't had the chance to acknowledge it until now, it was clear this wasn't their home. The very air they breathed was different... they were different, as though more layers to themselves and their world had been added, or something. She had no idea what this meant or how to describe it but... They weren't home.</p>
<p>    "How do we get back?" April asked slowly, hesitantly, "Can you- can't you use your sword to portal us back? Get Splinter and maybe he can help?"</p>
<p>    "I can't... and it's not just, me or my sword being stupid or useless again," April decided to address that slight self deprecation later, "but Raph's mystic powers weren't working either. He never has problems with that. I don't think that we even can use them here, wherever we are." He groaned, pushing a hand against his forehead. "It's just us and even when we get them back, I don't know how we're gonna get home. Maybe Donnie can figure something out?"</p>
<p>    They were silent for several long moments, and Leo was lost in thought. April frowned.</p>
<p>    "Leo, what are you planning?"</p>
<p>    "What?" Leo laughed humorlessly, "What do you mean?"</p>
<p>    "I'm not an idiot. You may have your brothers fooled, but I know you're smarter than you let on and you're trying to figure out something right now. Tell me what's going on instead of leaving me in the dark because you have a problem with doing that."</p>
<p>    Leo froze, "I uh... I honestly don't know. I'm less worried about getting home and more trying to focus on how to get my brothers back, but I'm not sure how to do that... this place is a maze, and not a fun one."</p>
<p>    "They're going to be looking for us, but we can probably sneak around still," April suggested. Leo frowned.</p>
<p>    "The halls are bright and there's no furniture or shadows or anything to hide in... and I don't have any tools aside from my sword—kinda left most of that stuff on the roof—so I can't even climb up on the ceiling..."</p>
<p>    "Then we fight our way through."</p>
<p>    "Yeah, 'cause that worked out soooo great for Mikey, Donnie, and Raph." Leo laughed again, but it was humorless and stressed, and he hid his face in his hands. "April, I don't know what we're supposed to do... This is supposed to be Raph's thing, not mine, keeping all of us safe and saving us when we're idiots and mess it up. I'm the face man! Not the save-everyone-from-kidnapping-man! I did it once with Big Mama but I had my sword working then!"</p>
<p>    "Leo..." April started, but the slider shook his head. He wasn't about to talk about anything emotional.</p>
<p>    "Let's just... see what we're working with...." Leo mumbled, looking around and changing the subject, "What even is this place?"</p>
<p>    April frowned, taking a glance around the room. It was pretty bare, the same gray metal covering the walls with pink glowing wires running through it. In the middle of the room sat a weird raised up space, like a counter, or something, with a dark gray top. She approached it carefully.</p>
<p>    "Huh." </p>
<p>    "April? Did you find something?" Leo asked, approaching her. </p>
<p>    "I... don't know." April had her palm sat flat on the top of the space, glowing pink icons and symbols she couldn't recognize popping up as she did so. "I think it's some kind of computer." She picked up her hand, noticing the screen was darker where she had her hand, less faded, and a thin sheet of dust now coated her palm. She scowled, "Ugh, I don't think it's been used or cleaned in a while. That's just nasty."</p>
<p>    Leo glanced around the room, "Well, there's boxes or something over there. Guess they're using this place as storage?"</p>
<p>"Well that's not gonna help much," April sighed, staring at the interactive screen in front of her sorrowfully. "You don't happen to read Kraang, do you?" </p>
<p class="">    Leo huffed, managing to quirk a smile at that, "Nope, sorry. Slept through that class. It was too boring, ya know? I'm not the one you should be asking."</p>
<p class="">    They both knew who she should be asking, but they let that name sit, unsaid. If he were here, he could've figured out everything there was to know about these creatures, and more, just from that computer. He could probably hack the white house from here.</p>
<p class="">    April went to go messing around with the computer, swiping and hitting random symbols in hopes some pictures or an English or Spanish translation would pop up—or really any known human language would work. Between herself, Leo, and google translate (assuming her phone still worked here), they could probably figure something out. Just... anything that wasn't <em>this</em>.</p>
<p class="">    While she worked, Leo had taken to digging through the storage boxes and, when that search ended up fruitless, exploring the rest of the room. April didn't pay much mind to that until he called her name frantically.</p>
<p class="">    "April! Look at this, quick!"</p>
<p class="">    April spun around, finding the turtle standing in front of a smaller door, opposite the one they had come in from. He stood halfway inside, pointing to something deep within, eyes wide. She ran over to him immediately.</p>
<p class="">    "What? What is it, did you find something?"</p>
<p class="">    "Do you see that?" Leo demanded, pointing inside further. April shook her head, and took a step inside the smaller room. It was made of the same material as the rest of the floor, and probably around six feet long and six feet wide. A pile of boxes sat in the back, stacked to the ceiling; this was probably a storage closet. </p>
<p class="">    April looked to the corner Leo was pointing at, frowning and trying to focus. She saw nothing. The girl stood up straight and was about to tell the turtle this, when she suddenly heard the click of the door as it closed. April whirled around to face the now shut and locked door, Leo's face visible through the glass window at the top.</p>
<p class="">    "Leo?!"</p>
<p class="">    "Funny story April, but I think the sneaking around in plain sight and charging the enemy is the only choice we have right now," Leo said slowly, eyes pained. "So that's what I'm gonna do."</p>
<p class="">    "Great," April said, slowly, "Then let's go do that."</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, well, here's the thing: There's like... no chance this isn't going to fail." Leo smiled sheepishly, a sad smile on his face. "And I'm not letting you get captured with me, k? So you're gonna stay here."</p>
<p class="">    April froze when she realized what her stupid, brave, dumbass excuse of a friend was about to do. </p>
<p class="">    "Leonardo Hamato, I swear to god if you don't open this door this instant-"</p>
<p class="">    "I'm gonna go try and save my brothers and try not to get kidnapped too, and then we'll come back and let you out. Sound good?" </p>
<p class="">    "No! Let me out right now, Leo! I'm going to help you!"</p>
<p class="">    "I'm pretty sure Donnie would kill me if I let his best friend get kidnapped by brains too, so I'll pass." Leo replied, visibly forcing out his carefree attitude now. "Thanks for the offer, though."</p>
<p class="">    "Leo," April scowled, banging her fist against the door, "You're going to get yourself killed. You can't take on all of those guys by yourself, you're one guy. You can't do this by yourself!"</p>
<p class="">    "To be fair, I'm pretty sure two people is just as outnumbered as one here." Leo refused to meet her eyes now, "So... I made sure there was a way out of there in case something happens, so it shouldn't take you too long to find it but if not, I'll be back soon to let you out, okay? Or send Mikey or Donnie or Raph to get you; I'm gonna get at least one of them free before I go down, promise."</p>
<p class="">    He laughed again, confident expression back on his face and winked, "I'm Neon Leon, though! You don't got anything to worry about. I'll get them free and be back within the hour, don't worry! Your boy's got this!"</p>
<p class="">    "Leo, what the hell?!" April pounded her fist against the door, "If you're gonna get captured, why run out there? Just stay here and we'll sneak out when their search calms down!"</p>
<p class="">    "Ugh, you want me to explain my plans, fine!" Leo sighed, "Back when we were fighting, I was watching and I realized something... The Kraang were focused on us since the beginning and only fighting you when you attacked them. I think they're mainly after me and my brothers. So if I stay here, they're never gonna stop searching for me. I'm kinda hoping if I leave and either somehow get Raph, Donnie, and Mikey free, or get captured too, they'll stop looking and forget about you."</p>
<p class="">    April's eyes widened. "What?"</p>
<p class="">    "So! You're our best bet to escape, but I can't stay." Leo hesitated, no longer meeting her eyes, "So... I'll see you later April."</p>
<p class="">    April watched in horror as Leo walked away now, and pressed her face against the door of the closet to watch him. He stood in front of the exit door now, gripping the handle of his odachi so hard his knuckles were white. He stood tall, but his stance was too rigid and stiff to be from confidence and not fear. The tip of the sword shook, the motion tracing itself back up to his shaking hands, though he tried to hide it. April knew it; the confidence was fake.</p>
<p class="">    Leonardo was terrified.</p>
<p class="">    "Leo! Please!" She called out again, desperate now. She couldn't lose all four of her boys within barely half an hour; she couldn't. She couldn't be alone. "Please! Don't do this!" </p>
<p class="">    Leo walked out the door, and April covered her mouth with her hand. The sounds of lasers being fired were nearly instant, nearly as loud as Leo's shouts and one liners. She turned around, back pressed against the door as she slid down to the floor. </p>
<p class="">    The lasers and one liners stopped too soon. </p>
<p class="">    April O'Neil was alone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Fun fact but this chapter includes my favorite line in this entire fic so far:</p>
<p>"Donnie, the expert in everything, and Leo, who had a vague understanding of how portals worked, looked at each other in mild panic."</p>
<p>Thanks for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Through the Portal, Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Part 2 of Through the Portal</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    On her 13th birthday, April's father bought her a watch. It came in a hand wrapped box, with tissue paper and small stars decorating the inside. A handwritten note from her father was written on beautiful, pale yellow stationary inside, and that paper soon found itself hanging on her mirror. The watch inside the box was golden with lime green engravings on the sides, tracing around the sides like vines wrapped around a fence, and a golden flower sat on the top. The numbers were dark green against white, written in roman numerals, and as delicately drawn as ever. It was really a beautiful piece of jewelry. And, it was something special from her father. The young teenager adored it, and wore it everyday without exception. She even slept with it some nights.</p>
<p>    But after a few days, April found it didn't work properly . For some reason, the minute hand ticked by much too slowly, and it continuously gave off the wrong time. April couldn't figure out why. She wasn't a clock maker, and neither was her father; she didn't know how to fix it. Even the simple instructions google gave her to fix the problem never seemed to do it. April didn't know if they were bad instructions, she was following them incorrectly, or the universe just hated her, but... she couldn't fix it. The clock would never keep the right time.</p>
<p>    So, April took it to the one individual she knew could, without a doubt, fix the problem.</p>
<p>    She still remembered handing it off to the purple themed turtle, who frowned in thought and walked to his lab without another word. April had followed him in curiously, looking over his shoulder to see what he was doing. </p>
<p>    Donnie worked diligently and carefully, working the small clockwork with ease. Within minutes, it was as good as new. April had hugged him tightly, thanking her best friend a dozen times, and then went off to show off the watch to the other three turtles.</p>
<p>    She wore that watch everyday for the next year. Where she went, the watch came too, without exception. Then, at 14, she got her first phone. There, she had the time forever. She wouldn't need to keep the time on her wrist anymore; it was too much effort to read the traditional clock anyways. A glance at the digital numbers on her lockscreen was so much faster. She decided to forego the watch and kept it on her dresser for decoration; she no longer needed it. It was unnecessary.</p>
<p class="">    Staring at her dead, darkened phone screen now, April regretted that decision gravely. She had no way of knowing how long she had been sitting in the locked Kraang closet, where a certain red eared slider had decided to leave her behind. It had to have been at least a few hours by now. Time was passing slowly, and she knew she could be misjudging the time solely because of how anxious and bored she was, but there was no way she had been sitting in here for anything less than two hours. Curse Leo for not coming back by now to let her out!</p>
<p class="">    Her mind chastised her for cursing him for that, especially when he might not have a choice in the matter anymore. She shoved that thought out of her mind; Leonardo was fine. He was getting his brothers out, and they were free. Michelangelo was fine. Raphael was fine. Donatello was fine. They were all awake and beating up Kraang as she sat there, and were only moments away from coming to get her out of here. There was no need to worry.</p>
<p class="">    April sighed.</p>
<p class="">    "Denial will get you nowhere, O'Neil..." April muttered to herself, groaning and rising to her feet. Leo had told her he knew there was a way out of the room and he wouldn't have locked her in if there truly was no way of escaping, so she just had to find out the escape route he was referring to, right? There wasn't that much in the room, so... it couldn't be that hard to find.</p>
<p class="">    Either way, searching would give her something to distract her mind with. April forced herself to shove her worries aside for another day, so she could use all of her energy to find this secret escape route herself.</p>
<p class="">    She took to the boxes stacked against the wall first. She dug through them, one by one, but didn't find much. Old junk, unreadable papers, suits and ties... while the contents certainly raised some questions, they did little to help her situation.</p>
<p class="">    April rose back to her feet, and glanced around the room. <em>What had Leo been talking about?</em></p>
<p class="">    Her eyes widened when she saw it.</p>
<p class="">    "Oh Leo, if they haven't already, I swear I'm killing you when I get out of here..." April muttered, staring at the air duct at the far end of the room, at the top of the wall. He expected her to crawl through that?! Through an old, dusty air vent barely even her size? Would she even be able to breathe in there?</p>
<p class="">    If she got out of here, the Kraang were going to be the least of the slider's worries.</p>
<p class="">    She got to work stacking the boxes to create a makeshift staircase, and then began pulling off the metal duct cover. The vent was blowing out a gentle, cool breeze, but was empty otherwise, and just large enough to fit through. April wasn't claustrophobic, per say, but she couldn't say she particularly enjoyed such small spaces. She wasn't going to run away screaming in terror, but she wasn't going to be particularly happy with this arrangement either. With a groan, April crawled inside. At least it was clean.</p>
<p class="">    For the next ten minutes, April crawled through, listening carefully for voices and following those whenever she could, trying to stay close to the exits. April wasn't really sure where she was planning on going. Was she trying to leave the building? Hoping to find a room filled with portals? Looking for the prison her boys were inevitably being kept in? Hell if April knew. She just needed to get out of that room; one step at a time.</p>
<p class="">    "Come on... These can't go on forever," April mumbled, still crawling through. "They gotta end somewhere, right?"</p>
<p class="">    April's hopes were answered soon enough, as one tunnel ended ahead above a room filled with bright light. She grinned, and pulled herself closer, carefully looking down.</p>
<p class="">    Two Kraang stood below her on either side of a door. They were a bit different from the ones she had seen before, dressed in a suit with an almost human face. The only reason she could tell they weren't human was the way they spoke, and the fact they were completely identical and moved in a strange, inhuman fashion... Why they needed human disguises here, she didn't know, but they stood tall and guarded the door behind them. </p>
<p class="">    There were more glowing wires around this door, and the scanner to enter was hidden behind the back of one of the droids. This room was guarded too closely; certainly not a storage closet, that much April knew.</p>
<p class="">    They began to speak, so she held her breath.</p>
<p class="">    "Kraang, does Kraang know how the plan known as Plan 18 is commencing?" One bot asked his buddy. That Kraang switched its lifeless gaze from directly ahead of him to look at the other bot.</p>
<p class="">    "The Plan which is known as Plan 18 is going that which is known as 'well'." Kraang announced, "Soon, the ones known as the turtles will be eliminated, and Kraang can go through with what Kraang has wanted to do for millennia."</p>
<p class="">    "That's not good..." April mumbled, still watching them through the vent. "I don't know what it means, but it's probably not good."</p>
<p class="">    "If Kraang is  finished discussing what Kraang has wanted to be done for millennia, then perhaps Kraang could tell Kraang: does this suit make Kraang's butt look big?  Kraang has gotten that which is known as 'a new suit'..."</p>
<p class="">    April decided to move on. She didn't want to bare witness to that conversation.</p>
<p class="">    She continued crawling, hoping she'd find a vent inside of the room that those two were guarding. It had to be important, right? Maybe this was their prison, and all four of her boys would be inside, safe and just waiting for her to burst in and save them. She would jump down, take out the few Kraang droids inside, maybe find her bat she had lost in the fight, and then unlock the doors and the turtles would be free! They'd argue for a bit, and then Donnie would get to work hacking into some computer and would figure out how they made the portal. With that knowledge, they'd hijack the Kraang's machines and create a portal home. Boom! Everything fixed.</p>
<p class="">    "Let's do this..." April mumbled, knowing very well that wasn't how the next hour would go. But hey, a girl could hope.</p>
<p class="">    Knees burning from being scraping against the narrow metal walls of the air ducts, April pushed on until she made it to the very end of the tunnel. She took a deep breath, and peeked out the vent.</p>
<p class="">    Inside the room, all four of the boys stood free! No shackles, weapons in their hands... they weren't even tied up! She had arrived right in the middle of their escape attempt. They would all be okay after all. April grinned, and prepared to watch her boys beat some Kraang butt.</p>
<p class="">    But they didn't.</p>
<p class="">    April frowned. All four of the turtles were standing in a line, not even attempting to fight the various Kraang surrounding them. They had their weapons but not a single one of them looked prepared to fight—Leo was even sheathing his sword. Four pairs of eyes were focused on a screen across the room, which a Kraang was pointing to as he spoke.</p>
<p class="">    "You will have one mission," The Kraang spoke loudly and matter-of-factly, "You will be helping Kraang take over the human world, known to humans as 'Earth', for Kraang."</p>
<p class="">    The turtles nodded. April's eyes widened.</p>
<p class="">    "Are they... taking orders from them?" She whispered, horrified. Why were they listening to them? That made no sense... these guys just attacked her family, and now they were out there agreeing to help them do what, take over Earth? Why wasn't Leo insulting them or Donnie attacking them or Raph punching them? Even if they for some unknown reason would be willing to help them with their plan, Raph should be beating them up for what they did to his little brothers. Donnie was smart enough to be suspicious of their goals. And Leo at least would never help them—he still hated Draxum for throwing him off a roof so long ago and never forgave him for that, even after Mikey convinced everyone else he was a good guy now. Leo could hold a grudge! There was no way he'd forgive the Kraang so easily for knocking out and kidnapping all four of them. So why was he listening to the brain things now? What was going on?</p>
<p class="">    Mikey scratched the back of his head, and that was what brought the small, glowing device on the back of his neck to April's attention. She looked over at each of the other three and sure enough, all of them had something small, silver, and glowing pink attached to the backs of their necks.</p>
<p class="">    "Are those controlling them?" She mumbled to herself, before quieting down to listen as the Kraang continued.</p>
<p class="">    "You will be taking down these enemies of Kraang." The screen switched to a new picture, which only deepened April's confusion. A photo of four mutant turtles appeared on the screen, wearing red, blue, orange, and purple masks, but they weren't the boys she knew. For one thing, they were all around the same size, lacking any of the markings her guys had. She was pretty sure they were all the same kind of turtle too, looking mildly bland and plain green in comparison to her colorful group. They held somewhat similar weapons to the ones below her, but... She had no idea who they were. Were these new turtles trying to copy her guys or something? </p>
<p class="">    "Is Kraang certain that Kraang can trust these turtles?" Another Kraang speaking directly below her caught April's attention. They were quieter than the one in front, clearly having a side conversation only meant for each other to hear. She frowned and tried to focus. "Those which are known as the turtles from Kraang's universe have already broken the mind control devices of Kraang before."</p>
<p class="">    "Kraang need not worry, Kraang," The other bot consoled, "Kraang has improved the devices. Kraang will use these turtles to wipe out the turtles of Kraang's universe, and no mutants of that which is known as any dimension will be able to stop Kraang."</p>
<p class="">    "The plan of Kraang to use the alternate dimensional counterparts of those known as the turtles was that which is known as a 'great plan'."</p>
<p class="">    "Different universes? Alternate dimensional counterparts?" April asked herself, completely confused. Then it hit her. She slammed a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp. </p>
<p class="">    Was she in another universe? An alternate dimension? </p>
<p class="">    She looked back to her turtles, and then to the ones on the screen. She'd heard Donnie's theories on the multiverse before, though she'd be lying if she said after the forty five minute mark she hadn't started to tune out his rant about it... But she did remember a few things about the idea. If she was in an alternate universe, then the turtles on screen must be this universe's equivalent of hers. The colors and weapons, and the whole "being-giant-mutant-turtles" situation, all matched up, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume they were also ninjas named after renaissance artists, right?</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    "The multiverse theory is that there's an infinite amount of universes out there," Donnie had said, eyes lit up in excitement, "Everything is possible and everything has happened in these universes. There's an infinite amount of possibilities and infinitive versions of us and our world, and even an infinite amount of universes where nothing we know exists."</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    "So there's a universe out there where Earth never existed?" April asked curiously, and Donnie nodded.</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    "And another where it was destroyed instantly. And another where there's two Earths and another where everything is exactly the same, but New York never existed. And another where we actually are Yokai, and another where we're human, and another where everything is exactly the same but Mikey hates pizza and Leo hates jokes!"</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    April gasped, "No way."</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    "Everything, and I mean everything, is possible," Donnie grabbed her by the shoulders and, with the biggest smile on his face, shook her in excitement, "And I think I'm getting close to proving it! I don't know if travelling to other universes is possible, but if I can prove they exist, that's the next step."</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>    Donnie radiated pure joy. He was excited and so alive. </em>
  <em>"Can you imagine that, April? Going to an entirely new plane of existence?"</em>
</p>
<p class="">    April didn't need to imagine anymore. She was living Donnie's past imaginated reality, and it wasn't nearly as fun as he had made it sound.</p>
<p class="">    Back in the present, April tried to make sense of what the bots were saying. Based on the conversation she'd just overheard, it looked like these Kraang were these other turtles' enemies. So they were struggling to beat them, huh? That must be why they wanted to use her universe's boys to defeat them. Force them to do their bidding. Use the turtles to defeat the turtles—they'd be the only ones matched enough in skill to do it. It all made sense.</p>
<p class="">    Well, not really. Absolutely nothing about this situation made any sense and it was beginning to give April a headache but... it made more sense than anything else, she supposed.</p>
<p class="">    Movement had started below her, and she glanced down again. The Kraang were leading the group away now, through another door. April quickly ran through her options.</p>
<p class="">    Plan #1: Jump out of the vent right now and start attacking. Hope the guys aren't ordered to take her out too. Probably get captured but hope this universe is lucky enough that she'll get out alive with all four turtles saved.</p>
<p class="">    Plan #2: Leave for now, try and get out of this building without being seen and try to find this universe's turtles. Hope that they are good guys and will help her save her boys and get them all home.</p>
<p class="">    As much as April hated it, she knew option 2 was the only smart course of action. There was no way that she could take on all of these bots by herself, and get her four mind controlled brothers saved at the same time... </p>
<p class="">    She was going to have to get out of the building by herself. She was going to have to leave Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Leo all alone in the hands of the enemy. April shook her head; she couldn't do that to them! It was cruel; that was her family down there. These disgusting brain freaks were going to use them as mindless weapons and she was helpless to save them. She couldn't do this alone.</p>
<p class="">    But... if those other turtles were the Kraang's enemies that they were so desperate to destroy, then chances were, they were good guys too. April knew her guys would always be willing to help an innocent no matter what, so maybe they would want to help her save her turtles? Even if they didn't, the Mad Dogs at least posed a threat to them and it would be beneficial for the new universe's turtles to get them out of Kraang control. Going to find them might be her best shot at getting the guys free and getting them all back home.</p>
<p class="">    She had no choice. April had to leave them behind.</p>
<p class="">    She spared one more glance out the vent, blinking away the tears that threatened to come spilling out, and looked at her family. Raphael stood at the front of the group with Mikey closely behind, and all four of them walked behind the Kraang and out the door. Both metaphorically and literally, they were travelling deeper into the depths of the enemies clutches. Her breath hitched. The door closed behind them, and the turtles were gone.</p>
<p class="">    April turned around, and began to crawl back into the air ducts in search of an exit.</p>
<p class="">    "I'm sorry guys." She whispered, determination slowly replacing her tears.</p>
<p class="">    "I promise I'll get you back."</p>
<p class=""> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>April is not having a good time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Anyways~ Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated, and I'll see y'all next week so we can see how 2012! Raph is doing</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Differences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Raphael and Rise April have a long needed talk, and Splinter wants to see whats going on.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys! I made a playlist for this story so if y'all wanna check it out that'd mean the world to me. I spent like, over three hours working on it because I have issues and really like making detailed playlists. </p>
<p>https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1HCv62ykS6qTdVWfLG6MMo?si=5a9a0541496243c8 </p>
<p>The songs are in a very specific order too, with all of them except for the very first song laid out in order of the events and character arcs that happen in this story. Which is probably why it took me so long. So I guess they're also kind of spoiler-hints too if you wanna think about them like that— if you're curious, we're currently just pass song #4 on the playlist and haven't gotten to #5 yet. But yeah if you're curious about future character arcs and plotlines, that'll give you some very very very vague hints...</p>
<p>But yeah, if you're interested, go check the playlist out! And if you have any suggestions for songs to be added to it, send 'em to me through my Tumblr asks (@Nostalgiaruinedme). Maybe I'll add them. </p>
<p>Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    The world was dark. </p>
<p>    Black, lonely, cold, and blind; emptiness surrounded Raphael on all sides, threatening to invade his very thoughts. Or maybe the emptiness was already his thoughts? Raphael wasn't sure. He wasn't sure where he was or what he was doing. He couldn't see anything and his mind was numb. Not to say the rest of him wasn't—did he even have a body? He couldn't really feel anything besides coldness, and he wasn't sure he cold feel his limbs. He wondered if he could move his arms if he wanted to, but he didn't really care to try. Raphael was just too tired.</p>
<p><em>    "Is he..." </em>Voices faded in and out of existence. They were distant and blurry, as though a fog were covering them. No, that didn't make sense―he couldn't see the voices, just hear them. Fogs just prevent you from viewing your surroundings perfectly, and Raph had long since given up on seeing things properly. He liked the darkness. It was nice on his eyes. But why couldn't he hear the voices well? Was he deaf? No, this was like... something was covering his ears,  playing white noise so loud it prevented anything else from getting through. He couldn't make out their words.</p>
<p>
  <em>    "Not breathi-" </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>    "does... e... -ave a puls-?"</em>
</p>
<p>    Raphael wasn't sure if he should be listening to what was being said. It was probably something important, he distantly recognized, and he should probably care about whatever it was. But... he just couldn't bring himself to. It was quiet and he was numb, far away from the troubles of the world, and he was exhausted. Months of battle could do that to a turtle. Surely, he deserved a few moments of sleep. </p>
<p>
  <em>    "-nie do..... s-thing!"</em>
</p>
<p>    The voices were still hazy and distant, but Raph was fairly certain that was Leo. Probably. There was a small chance it was Mikey, but more likely than not, it was probably Leo's voice. Raph really wasn't sure, but at least he knew it wasn't Donnie, Why would Donnie be yelling at Donnie to do something?</p>
<p>    A distant voice in his head told him that that was probably, technically possible, but he couldn't remember why. He couldn't remember much of anything recent, actually. Where even was he? What was going on? Why couldn't he see anything? Who did he just fight? Why was something trying to convince him he fought himself? That didn't make any sense.</p>
<p>    A pain shot through his chest—a repetitive, blunt force bruising his ribs. It was constant and steady, never ceasing. Though it was harsh, it was timed and to gentle to be an attack... Raphael distantly realized he couldn't see anything because his eyes were shut, but he wasn't sure why he couldn't bring himself to force them open. It was such an easy task, but for some reason, it felt like the hardest thing anyone could ask him to do. Why? That question was going through his head too much. He decided he hated it.</p>
<p>
  <em>    "Som-... elp -im!"</em>
</p>
<p>    Was that April? Raph's mind supplied that yes, yes it was, but he still wasn't sure which April it was. Wait, that was weird; why would that be a question? Since when were there two Aprils? He felt like he should know the answer to that. The darkness crept closer and kept him from moving, but Raph knew he would be frowning if he could. Two Aprils was just strange. He liked April, but one was enough for him.</p>
<p>
  <em>    "-aph, please-"</em>
</p>
<p>    His thoughts were blurring more. Mind was numb, hazy, and it was hard to think. Every part of his body was numb, save for his lungs, which burned with pain. It was as though a crushing weight were on his sternum, only pressing on his lungs, keeping himself from getting any air in. It hurt. He knew he needed air, but it was hard to actually get any. Was he even breathing?</p>
<p>    The steady thump on his chest continued, separate from the weight keeping his lungs shut. Repetitive, like a heartbeat, but artificial. <em>Thump. Thump. Thump</em>. His ribs hurt. Something was pushing on his plastron over and over again, hitting it hard. He still couldn't breathe.</p>
<p>    Raph just wanted to sleep.</p>
<p>    He stopped fighting the tiredness. Rest sounded good, and maybe then he wouldn't have to deal with air and breathing—that was just stressing him out right now anyways. Raphael let himself slip deeper into the abyss. It was peaceful and nice, and it was quiet... until a desperate scream shattered it.</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <b>    "Raphael!"</b>
  </em>
</p>
<p>    A burst of air finally reached his lungs.</p>
<p>    Raphael gasped and his eyes flew open. Reality hit him like a truck, the lights and sounds of New York city overwhelming his senses as he found himself back in the present. He saw Donnie move away from his face and finally remove his hands from his chest, tears of relief in his eyes and the same look on Leo's face too. Mikey threw himself at his brother, and Raph found him engulfed in the tightest hug he'd ever had. </p>
<p>    "What... ugh..." Raph groaned, not even bothering to finish his question. He looked up to see everyone had gathered around him, bruised and worried, but all radiating overwhelming happiness. Though he couldn't see Mikey's face (that was still buried in his shoulder, as the youngest turtle hadn't stopped hugging him yet), he knew he probably was near tears like Donnie, Leo, and both of the Aprils seemed to be. What happened?</p>
<p>    "We nearly lost you there," Leo said, reading the question on his mind. He exhaled loudly, as though it were the first time he allowed himself to breath in hours. "You okay?"</p>
<p>    Oh, he had been dying. "Yeah, I'm-"</p>
<p>    "You weren't breathing, don't you dare say you're fine!" Donnie interrupted, scowling. Raph almost laughed. He was still breathless, but feeling was quickly returning to him, as were memories of that night. They were on the fire escape where he'd landed after his alternate, mind controlled self had hit him. Hard. He winced as his mind replayed the punch to his plastron, harder than any strike he'd ever received before, and he felt Mikey's grip on him tighten. </p>
<p>    "Ow, come on little brother, don't suffocate me again," He huffed, though there was no bite to his words. Mikey laughed nervously, loosening his grip, but still not ending the hug just quite yet. Raph decided for once not to comment. His head pounded and his shell ached, and he glanced up to the building where he had been thrown to, seeing the cracks in the brick. <em>Yeah... That was definitely going to leave a mark</em>.</p>
<p>    "Is he gonna be okay?" April, the one who Raph was familiar with, not the newcomer, asked. Her counterpart sat besides her, watching him guiltily. </p>
<p>    "Just another chip in my shell... literally." Raph mumbled. Sure, he hurt everywhere, but he'd be fine. He always was. They had more important things to worry about. It was just some blunt force trauma, and he was lucky enough to land with his back to the wall. It hurt like hell, but he didn't have a shell for nothing—nature's protection came in handy sometimes. He'd be fine.</p>
<p>    Donnie nodded, "Yeah, he'll be alright. He just needs to take it easy for a little while, and rest when we get home after I check him over for a concussion."</p>
<p>    "Rest?" Raph looked at the purple turtle like he was crazy, "You expect me to rest now? Dude, we just fought ourselves! We don''t have time to rest!"</p>
<p>    Donnie glared, "I literally just said I was concerned you have a concussion. You can't just up and walk immediately back into battle."</p>
<p>    "I remember everything that happened, and ain't memory loss a symptom or something? Yeah I don't have that, so I'm fine." Raphael chose not to mention the ringing in his ears, worsening the headache that already made his head feel like it was going to explode. Donnie rolled his eyes.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, it's one of many symptoms! Not the only one."</p>
<p>    "How long ago did they leave?" Raph demanded, "We need to go after them and I'm not resting."</p>
<p>    "Oh yes, you absolutely are." Leo folded his arms across his chest. "We're all hurt and we were caught off guard badly, and you were just beaten into unconsciousness. We're not rushing into battle immediately afterwards."</p>
<p>    "And why not?!" Raphael demanded. He sat up straighter, Mikey finally letting go of him, and gripped the handles of the railing tightly to pull himself up. His eyes crossed and stars entered his vision as he did so, and dizziness threatened to pull him back down to the ground. He pushed through it and did his best to pretend he felt nothing. He winced as he rose to his feet, but successfully hid his pain otherwise. "We don't have time to rest. New April was right, those guys are being controlled and we need to get them freed, and then we need to beat the Kraang's ugly faces in for doing this!"</p>
<p>    "We're at a disadvantage here, Raph," Leo argued, "They have no qualms about killing us, and we're trying to take them down without hurting them. That's hard enough to do as is, and we can't do that if we're injured. Not to mention, we're down a fighter. You need at least a day to heal."</p>
<p>    "A day?!" Other April exclaimed, gesturing to him, "He can barely stand, he wasn't breathing! He needs longer than that!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, Raph," Their April shook her head, "There's no way you're going out there again tonight."</p>
<p>    "I gotta agree with the Aprils on this one," Donnie said, and Mikey nodded in agreement. Donatello frowned, a scrutinizing gaze on his older brother as he finally noticed the death grip Raph had on the railing to keep himself standing. "You need to heal." </p>
<p>    Raph growled. "Like hell I do!"</p>
<p>    "Yes, you absolutely do!"</p>
<p>    "There's way too much to get done and I'm not going to just sit on my-"</p>
<p>    "Enough!" Leo shouted, silencing them all. He looked at the group, taking a deep breath before speaking. "We are going back to the lair; we're done for the night. Raph is resting, Donnie is going to check him over, and we're going to figure out a better plan for dealing with these guys. Understand?!"</p>
<p>    No one argued with Leo for once. He sighed in relief.</p>
<p>    "Okay, good. Then let's go home."</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    April couldn't forget their faces.</p>
<p>    She knew logically that the two turtles they had just fought were her boys, but she couldn't comprehend that <em>those were her boys</em>. It was like her mind was just refusing to accept it. How could Raph act so cruel? While he always had the muscle and ability to do so, he had never beaten someone into unconsciousness like that, and certainly never enjoyed it. Sure, he had roughed up villains and laughed a little about it in the past but... this was on a whole different level. This was just evil. She had even met his eyes at one point in the battle. April O'Neil had always been honest and quite expressive, and rarely tried to hide her emotions (and even if she did, Raph knew her well enough to tell what they were). Raphael had looked into her eyes, seen the fear and terror in them.</p>
<p>    And he had laughed.</p>
<p>    And Mikey... he was as happy as ever, having fun with battle like usual, but it wasn't the same. He wasn't laughing over his own jokes or shouting about the wonders of gymnastics in battle. He was laughing at their pain and horror. He was laughing at the fact he was trying to kill them. That wasn't the Michelangelo she knew. He wasn't like that.</p>
<p>    And yet... it was both of them. They were mind controlled, sure, but did they have to be enjoying it so much? Were they even enjoying it of their own free will? Were they still in there? Were they going to be like that forever? April had so many questions and so little answers. It hurt.</p>
<p>    Distantly, she wondered what Donnie and Leo were doing. Were they out there, beating up innocent people, and having fun with it too? Were they suffering inside their own minds? Where even were they, if not with their brothers? April wasn't even sure if she wanted to find those two anymore. She didn't want to see either of them in such a state, especially not Donnie, her best friend... She didn't want to see him acting like Mikey and Raph had been. They all joked that Donnie was actually evil sometimes,bbut she didn't want to see what that would actually be like! And Leo was wild enough as it was, what would he be like as the Kraang's puppet? April didn't want to see that, ever, but she knew she would have to if she ever wanted to help free them...</p>
<p>    More than anything else, April just wanted her family back.</p>
<p>    She buried her head in her knees, sitting in the corner of the pit of the alternate lair. After the latest battle, her counterpart had had to go home to explain the situation to her father. She had invited April to join her, but she declined; April was exhausted, and didn't think she could handle meeting an alternate version of her father at the moment (she was already trying and failing to avoid thinking about what her actual parents were doing back home). Leonardo had followed this world's Splinter into the dojo to inform him of what happened, while Donatello had immediately shoved Raphael into his lab to check him over, and April was fairly certain Mikey had followed them in. In another world (literally), she'd be in there too, but she knew this Raphael didn't particularly like her. Any attempts at comfort or care would probably be taken the wrong way. He would probably get angry and yell at her and she couldn't take that right now.</p>
<p><em>    God, she missed her Raph.</em> </p>
<p>    So, for the past half hour, she had been sitting in the pit, mourning her family alone.</p>
<p>    "Hopefully Splints isn't doing too badly..." April muttered to herself, wondering what he was doing back in her own dimension. How much time had passed over there? Was he desperately searching for his sons? Would he realize they weren't there to be found? She wondered if maybe he could get Draxum to help—maybe he could take a break from the lunchroom to try and make an interdimensional portal or something. He was the expert in all things mystical. Then, they could both head over here and save their sons and get them all out of this horrible universe. They'd all be okay!</p>
<p>    April pretended she didn't know that this was far out of Draxum's pay grade.</p>
<p>    She kept her head down, and focused on her breathing. She couldn't cry. Not yet. Not yet... </p>
<p>    "Hey,"</p>
<p>    April blinked and looked up, torn from her thoughts. She hadn't expected anyone to come in here, but she supposed that was her own fault for not remembering that this wasn't her home—of course the people who actually lived in here would enter the room. However, even with that, she certainly hadn't expected to see this universe's Raphael standing there. His arms were crossed and he didn't meet her eyes, but he didn't change his mind and leave the room either. Was he addressing her?</p>
<p>    That was strange.</p>
<p>    "Hi, Raph," She nodded a greeting, pushing away all her fear and dread-filled thoughts from before—she'd have time for her pity party later (despite the party in the name, those were best done when alone). Raph took her reply as an invitation to sit down a few feet away from her, a distance far enough that respected her personal space, yet left something to be desired in terms of conversation.</p>
<p>    Several moments passed, and with each one April's anxiety grew. Raphael wasn't speaking, just bore holes into the ground with his intense gaze, and the silence was overwhelming. Why was he here? Maybe she should start the conversation, or something, but saying what? Maybe she could ask how his head was. She was wondering about that anyways, after all. She cleared her throat.</p>
<p>    "Uh, Raph?" She asked, hesitantly, leaning forward. "How's your-"</p>
<p>    "I'm sorry."</p>
<p>    April blinked. "Huh?"</p>
<p>    "I said I'm sorry," Raph said, speaking quickly and leaving very little room for a back and forth conversation. He spit the words out, as though desperate to get them said and done with. "What you said sounded so crazy and I didn't want to believe you, but it turns out you were right, and I was kind of a jerk about it which you probably didn't need to deal with on top of... what we saw tonight.</p>
<p>    "I was just... we've had people come down here before, only to get us attacked. Last time Leo decided to invite someone down here to help them it nearly got us killed and our lair's location revealed to the Foot. I didn't want you to lead the Kraang down here and get my brothers hurt again, and I really didn't think there was any way you were telling the truth." Raph trailed off, eyes glaring holes into the ground besides his feet, still not making eye contact. He finished without flourish. "So... yeah. I'm sorry."</p>
<p>    April didn't say anything for several long moments. She... hadn't expected that. </p>
<p>    This universe was nothing like her own; she knew that much. But what had caught her off guard more than anything else so far was the difference between her Raphael and this altnerate version. Sure, this Leo was way more mature, this Donnie a bit more awkward, this Mikey unique in his own ways, but this Raphael... She had thought there was nothing at all to tie this Raph to her own. </p>
<p>    This Raphael shouted and shoved and fought, whereas her Raphael was gentle and only yelled out of fear or desperation, or laughter. Though he loved to fight, he was the big brother and only reserved that force for his enemies. He was tall and strong, but had a heart even bigger than that that he used to love everyone he met. When someone was hurt, he was the first to be at their side. When someone fell, he was the first to catch them. When someone cried, he was the first to go offer comfort. He had a slight temper and he made mistakes, of course he did, but he always owned up to them and made sure he never hurt anyone. On the rare occasions he did, he'd spend weeks making it up to them and making sure they understood just how sorry he was. He was never ashamed of being vulnerable. Everyone knew whether he was happy or sad or hurt or mad. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and all of those things were what made Raph <em>Raph</em>. </p>
<p>    Until now, April hadn't seen any of that in this Raphael. But now, she saw slivers of that same protectiveness slipping through the cracks this new Raph let show with his apology. He was angry and lashed out, but it was out of fear for his brothers. He didn't want to see them get hurt. He'd do anything to keep that from happening. He made mistakes, just like her Raph, and it turned out that he made up for them too. He didn't mean to hurt anyone, not like that, at least. </p>
<p>    He may not be the caring, gentle leader he was in her world, but he was still the same protective, strong brother who would give up the world to keep his family safe. Maybe those were the universal Raph genes.</p>
<p>    She found herself smiling without realizing it, and reached over to pull the shorter red turtle into a hug. He tensed up immediately, clearly not expecting that, but soon relaxed and awkwardly patted her back. April laughed. </p>
<p>    The hug was loose and clumsy, and neither were completely at ease, but it was a start. An offer of trust, one that hadn't been fully accepted yet, but was finally being considered. This Raph had a lot more walls up than hers ever did, but hey, maybe they'd come down eventually. Anything was possible—this adventure had proven that. She'd give it time. Maybe the two turtles were more similar than she thought.</p>
<p>    "Okay, uh, I'm gonna take that as a 'we're cool'," Raph said, pulling away. April grinned. It was strained under the stress of her whole situation, but it was a genuine smile none the less.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, we're cool."</p>
<p class="">    "Good, okay, that's good." Raphael stood up and cleared his throat, "I-"</p>
<p class="">    "Well, it's good to see you two are finally getting along."</p>
<p class="">    Raph and April spun around to see Leo standing several feet behind them, a teasing grin on his face, though it was mostly aimed towards his brother. Raph groaned, and April chuckled. </p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, we're cool now," April told him, standing up fully and walking over to him, "What's up?"</p>
<p class="">    "That's good," Leo nodded, then hesitated, "Uh, I told Sensei everything that happened tonight. He wants to talk to you."</p>
<p class="">    April blinked, "Me?" She asked, pointing to herself in confusion. Leo nodded.</p>
<p class="">    "Huh. Okay." She hadn't really been expecting that, though she guessed it made sense.</p>
<p class="">    Leo looked a little concerned, "Do you need-" </p>
<p class="">    "Nah, I can find my way myself, don't worry," April said, declining the offer she knew Leo was about to make. Sure, she didn't know this lair very well, but it was significantly smaller than the one back in her own universe. She could see the outside of the dojo walls from where she stood; Leo didn't need to find her way. it would be unnecessary for Leo to walk her there. "I'll see you two later."</p>
<p class="">    With a wave and a nodded goodbye from Leo and Raph, April took a deep breath, and she set off towards the dojo. She briefly considered waiting another few moments to prepare herself, but ultimately decided that was silly; she'd already escaped an alien hideout, met herself, fought her mind controlled friends, and discovered that alternate realities existed and traveled to one within a timespan of barely three days. The idea of mentally preparing herself for a conversation seemed ridiculous in comparison to that.</p>
<p class="">    That almost made her laugh. She never would have expected that she'd ever feel nervous going to speak to Splinter. April couldn't remember the last time she felt uncomfortable talking to him. Splinter was a laid back old man who found everything funny and always wanted to help out his sons and their friends. April counted herself lucky to know him... Even if sometimes he went on insane missions and followed her to her job and drove her absolutely crazy. </p>
<p class="">    But this wasn't the Splinter she knew. Though she'd only spoken to him once, the difference was astounding. This version of him seemed like someone who would probably banish you if you called him something like "Splints" or tried to make fun of his shows (though, according to Leo, this Splinter didn't even watch TV. What was that about?). He spoke little and the words that did come out were harsh and authoritative. April was scared because she truly had no idea how she was supposed to speak with him. Her Splinter didn't really care about honor and respect beyond basic kindness and decency, but she was completely sure this one did. What if she accidentally said something wrong?</p>
<p class="">    "Come on, you got this," April muttered to herself as she approached the dojo, where she stood silently. She took a deep breath, and set a hand on the door, pausing and whispering a quick peptalk to herself before she opened the door, "You're April O'Neil! You can do this!"</p>
<p class="">    Taking a deep breath, April entered the dojo.</p>
<p class="">    It was beautiful.</p>
<p class="">    Across the expansive floor lay at least a dozen elaborately sewn carpets, organized neatly next to each other. The walls were wooden and clean, a dark teal painted on the upper half of it. Though it was largely empty of furniture and knickknacks, a few items were allowed to call this place home. Among them were several weapons of various shapes and sizes that were hung up around the room—April didn't know their names, but she recognized a couple from the lair back home. Off to the side sat a shrine to... April really didn't know who it was for; she couldn't recall Splints having one of those, but she wasn't about to ask anyone who it was for. Some things were best left unsaid—she didn't want to bring up bad memories, at least not having only just met this group.</p>
<p class="">    The shrine had caught her attention for a few moments, but that wasn't what held it. That honor would go to the grand tree growing in the back of the dojo. Its bark a healthy brown and roots strong, this tree was just so alive in a way that shouldn't be possible for a plant that grew up without sunlight. Splinter must have taken great care in ensuring its health, and the fruit of his effort stood tall behind him now―a beautiful backdrop against which he now sat, eyes closed and breathing slow. A small tray sat in front of him with two cups of tea, but they were untouched. Whatever Splinter was doing evidently required his full attention.</p>
<p class="">    Was he meditating?</p>
<p class="">    With careful steps, April walked further into the room as quietly as possible. She tried to mimick the rat's sitting position as she did so, and then sat quietly, waiting for him to notice her presence. Which, much to her appreciation, did not take long.</p>
<p class="">    "Hello, April," Splinter greeted, eyes open and meeting hers. April blinked, plastered a smile onto her face, and tried not to think about how much she missed her home.</p>
<p class="">    "Hi, Splinter. Leo said you wanted to see me?"</p>
<p class="">    "Yes." He nodded, and reached for his cup of tea. He nodded towards the second one before he took a sip of his own, an offer that April quickly accepted. He continued before she got the chance to thank him.</p>
<p class="">    "I understand that you, the other April, and my sons came into contact with the Michelangelo and Raphael from your world today."</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, a couple hours ago," April sighed, "They... kinda beat up your guys pretty bad. Sorry about that."</p>
<p class="">    "You have no need to apologize, April. What happened to them was not your fault," Splinter said gently, yet with an unmatched firmness that left no room for argument. "The Kraang are beings of evil intent; I'm not surprised that they have stooped to levels this low... Though, I will admit, I did not expect this to be the route they took for success."</p>
<p class="">    "What even are they?" April asked curiously, "I heard the guys talk about them and I got that they're aliens and all, but we don't have them in my world—or, uh, if we do, I haven't seen them. What's their deal?"</p>
<p class="">    "The Kraang are beings from another world, and they are intent on taking over ours for their own using." Splinter took a sip of his tea, glancing off into the distance in thought for a few moments before continuing. "It was their creation, mutagen, that turned me and my sons into what we are today. Donatello knows the most about the topic, but they are planning on using that same substance to transform the Earth into something more similar to that of their own."</p>
<p class="">    "The Kraang mutated you guys?" April frowned, "Wait, how did that happen? Aliens didn't have anything to do with it for Splints- er, sorry, my world's Master Splinter and turtles."</p>
<p class="">    Splinter stood at this moment, rising to his feet in silence, and began to walk off towards the side of the room. April hesitated; was she supposed to follow him? Did he expect her to stay sitting? This Splinter was confusing and she still wasn't sure what he wanted her to do... She really needed to stop overthinking everything. After another moment of panicking thoughts, she stood and followed him, keeping enough of a distance that she hoped was respectful. Just in case.</p>
<p class="">    She watched as he approached the shrine, picking up a photograph from the small shelf, and carefully looking over it. April stood on her toes and tried to peer over to see what it was, but found the effort to be unnecessary; he turned and held the framed picture against his chest, leaving a full view of it to her.</p>
<p class="">    Three individuals were in the photo, all of which were human. A young Japanese man stood on the left side, a grim look on his face as he looked into the camera. To his right was a young woman, long dark hair pulled back into a bun on the top of her head and a plain expression. In her arms was an infant, eyes closed, resting peacefully. It must have been an old photo, colored only in black and white, slightly aged but well protected by the glass in front of it. April looked to him, speaking softly, but one brow raised in question.</p>
<p class="">    "Who are they?"</p>
<p class="">    "This is me, back when I was still human," Splinter explained, "With my wife, Tang Shen, and my daughter, Miwa." He chuckled slightly upon seeing the confused look plastered on the teen's face, "I suppose something about this differs from myself in your world, does it not?"</p>
<p class="">    April laughs slightly, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand, "Yeah... there's a bit of a difference there. Maybe more than I expected."</p>
<p class="">    Splinter nodded, and began to recount the familiar story of how he came to live the life he was living now, allowing time between every few moments to allow for April to comment—interruptions he normally wouldn't allow, but felt the occasion called for it. He himself was curious about his other self and his life, after all, so the interruptions weren't unwelcome. </p>
<p class="">    "So all of your mutations were an accident?" April asked, mouth agape, "Back home, Splinter's was, but not the guys'."</p>
<p class="">    "You said that this Baron Draxum created them on purpose as warriors, is that right?" Splinter clarified, and nodded to himself after April made a quiet <em>mhm</em> noise of agreement, "I see. That is quite the difference in our origins, though I suppose the ultimate outcome was the same."</p>
<p class="">    "I guess..." April mumbled. He was right, up to a point. Their outcomes of being raised to be great ninja warriors to defeat the Shredder was the similar, yes, but their current situations were vastly different. The two groups were never meant to have crossed paths; April and the others should be back home, preparing for war to defeat the Foot, not trapped in another universe to be entangled in someone else's story. She didn't want their "ultimate outcome" to be being slaves to aliens, forced to fight in a battle that wasn't theirs on a side they would never agree with. It was cruel. </p>
<p class="">    Splinter sighed, watching as April's face grew downcast, "I suppose you are worried about your family."</p>
<p class="">    "Well, duh..." April muttered, though her tone was saddened and held no sarcasm, "I'm really worried about them. They're good guys, they'd never want to fight with those jerks."</p>
<p class="">    "Hmm." Splinter had long since placed the photograph back in its proper place, and took a moment to glance at it. The familiar image was carved into his mind at this point, as eternal as a picture in a book, but he still found himself staring at it all too often. </p>
<p class="">    He turned back to look at the newcomer once again. Splinter hardly knew her, but he knew the strength that she held in both mind and spirit all too well. It was the same that the April of his universe had, and as her teacher, he could identify those characteristics easily in someone so different, yet so similar. </p>
<p class="">    But even with all the strength she did have, she was still a child. A scared, young woman who was trapped in a world she'd never known even existed and who had lost everyone dear to her. Her family was left behind, unable to contact her and probably worried to death. The family that she'd been fortunate enough to bring with her had been stolen away from her. Evil beings had shoved a knife into their hands and forced them to stab her in the back, forcing her to do the unthinkable and fight the ones she loved so dearly. April had been left alone.</p>
<p class="">    Splinter set a hand on her shoulder, earning a surprised look from April, and he smiled gently.</p>
<p class="">    "We will get them back," He promised, "And until you can safely return to your universe, our home is open to you. You will be safe here."</p>
<p class="">    April let herself smile sadly, but with her eyes shining brightly with hope, "Thank you, Master Splinter Sir."</p>
<p class="">    "And when you and my sons get them back, your turtles are also welcome here for as long as need be," Splinter continued, removing his hand and holding both his arms behind his back. "I may not be their actual father, but as father to them in another world, they will always be welcome in our home." He chuckled, "I learned long ago that families come in all shapes, so I suppose interdimensional ones are just as valid as any other. I promise you that we will bring them back."</p>
<p class="">    April found herself with a wide grin on her face, feeling for the first time, faithful that this awful situation wasn't as hopeless as she had thought. The Kraang were strong, but look who she had on her side fighting now? She knew from experience that the Hamatos were a force to be reckoned with, and no universe could change that. Just let the Kraang try.</p>
<p class="">    "Now," Splinter interrupted her thoughts, bringing her back to reality. "You should get some rest. You all had quite a long day, and if you want to take on the other Michelangelo and Raphael again soon, you'll need your strength."</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, I think I will..." April held her hands behind her back, awkwardly bowing, and backing up out of the room. She stopped at the door, glancing back at the ninja master once more. She took a deep breath. "Thank you, Master Splinter."</p>
<p class="">    With renewed hope, April left the dojo. Time to rest, and prepare for the coming nights.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter had a lot of exposition and it killed me buuuuutttt these conversations were needed, so at least they're done now lol.</p>
<p>Oh! One more thing—if you guys have any suggestions or requests for what you wanna see happen between any Rise and 2012 characters, send them to me on Tumblr. Though we're still a bit away from them all being saved, I'm in the plotting stages for when that happens. So if you wanna see a certain thing happen or have an idea for a funny conversation between any Rise and 2012 character, let me know. Maybe I'll include it somehow.<br/>(Please don't put them in the comments though, send those requests to me on Tumblr!)</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for reading! I'll see you all next week.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. More Problems Arrive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Donnie and Leo have an important talk, and Raph, Mikey, and the Aprils get to hang out. A new enemy arrives.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had to rewrite this chapter twice because I could not figure out how I wanted to introduce someone—still not completely happy with it, but it's as good as it's gonna get lol. </p><p>Also, dang, I hadn't even realized how long this fic has gotten—and we've barely even begun in terms of plot. Hold on tight guys because this fic is going to be a LOOONNNGGG on, but I'll try and make it worth your while. Oh, and also? This chapter sets up for like, six different major plot points (including the arrival of one Rise turtle you haven't seen quite yet... if you read carefully you should be able to guess who). So starting next week, this story is going to be moving along a lot quicker. I think you guys will especially like next week's update, a LOT of stuff is about to go down ;)</p><p>Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Donnie solved problems.</p><p>    That was just what he did. It was his role in the Hamato family, simple as that. Mikey messed up the TV? Go get Donnie. Raph ruined another punching bag? Donnie will fix it. Leo broke the toaster again? You guessed it: just tell Donnie. It didn't matter what the issue was; if it existed, Donnie could solve and fix it, and he was confident in his ability to do so. In fact, he used to think there wasn't a problem in existence that he couldn't solve.</p><p>    But that was before that little extra factor called "<em>the multiverse</em>" was thrown in.</p><p>    "Come on!" Donnie shouted, slamming his fist onto his desk in frustration, his stolen Kraang portal device sitting in front of him, hooked up with various wires and such to his laptop. "This is impossible!"</p><p>    It was the night after their battle with the other world's Mikey and Raph, and under Splinter's orders, they were forced to stay home at least for one more night to give Raphael more time to heal. Raph had, of course, hated this plan, and insisted he was fine. But Splinter wasn't having any of it. The mission to save the other universe's turtles was put on hold for one more night. Or at least it was in the eyes of the rest of the team. </p><p>    Donnie, however, knew there was plenty to still be done that could be researched from the comfort of his lab. If they weren't allowed out, then now was as good of a time as ever to work on it. The first task? Figuring out how they'd get the alternate turtles and April back to their own universe when this was all over.</p><p>    Before he'd heard the full story, Donatello had assumed they'd have to break into a Kraang facility and find the specific portal used from before to get them all back home, but after April told him how they'd gotten here in the first place, he reconsidered. The triangle portal appearing out of nowhere sounded like the typical Kraang portal that they used to get everywhere—he even stole one not too long ago, and had it in his lab! If he could figure out how to wire it so its default location was not Dimension X, but the alternate world, then they wouldn't have to stress about that later. Or even better, maybe New April could bring in reinforcements from her universe. </p><p>    But none of that would happen if he couldn't even figure out how to do that.</p><p>    Donnie groaned again, tongue sticking out in concentration as he stared at the screen in front of him. Picking apart the device itself had been fruitless, though he was happy to find out that you can, indeed, change the destination. But he didn't even know where the other dimension was located—no, scratch that, he didn't even know how you would show the location of a universe anyways! Was there a map? A compass? Maybe something like interdimensional coordinates? Donnie wasn't sure, but he'd have to figure that out and where the other universe was before he could go further.</p><p>    And that took the teen to where he was now, dying in frustration and glaring at letters and numbers on a screen that wouldn't let him win. Donnie had had the genus idea of hacking into the Kraang databases to try and find out some information from there. He'd done it before, so maybe they had a file on the portals or something of that nature.</p><p>    But the security was so high now, and had obviously been vastly upgraded. If the tech was advanced before, the security now was just plain futuristic, like it'd been taken straight out of a science fiction novel. He didn't even know <em>where</em> to begin to crack it. When had the Kraang even taken the time to upgrade it? It had to have been recent, he'd gotten in just fine only a week ago...</p><p>    Donnie looked to the portal device again, and sighed. He'd spent so long analyzing it, and all he figured out was that it <em>could</em> work for his plan. He still didn't know <em>how</em>. The how was the most important part, too! Obviously, plenty of things could work, but without a proper plan on how to make them do what one wanted... all knowing the possibilities did was create disappointment. </p><p>    "Maybe I could just... No, I tried that already," Donnie muttered to himself under his breath, trying to get around the protection for the dozenth time that night. Nothing that worked for him in the past was useful anymore, and he hated it. He'd been staring at the screen for six hours straight now and barely made a dent in the security. At this rate, he'd never get through.  </p><p>    But Donatello wasn't one to give up so easily. He'd get through if it killed him. All he needed was...</p><p>    "Wait," He froze, an idea finally coming to him, and with it, a grin. The Kraang communication orb! He already had that, and if he could get it online again, surely it was already connected to all of the Kraang databases. Or, at the very least, it was connected in the past. Maybe he could use that as a backdoor to get into them again...</p><p>    He'd exhausted all other options. So why not give it a shot?</p><p>    Fingers flying across the keyboard, Donnie got to work. He typed rapidly, pausing to go grab the orb and connect that, and then went back to typing again. His clock ticked on as the seconds and minutes passed... Donnie didn't notice it at all; he rarely noticed the passage of time when focused like this. Completely absorbed in his work, unaware of all his surroundings, determined to figure out the answer to a problem—this was Donatello in his prime.</p><p>    Donnie gasped and grinned as he realized he was right. He didn't need to break down the security after all; the backdoor through the communication orb was unlocked. Success! With a few more taps, Donnie finished up, and he was finally in.</p><p>    "Alright, Kraang..." Donnie grinned, face glowing a pale blue from the bright light of the screen, "Let's find out just what you have on their universe and how to get there..."</p><p>    Donnie clicked on a folder (or the closest Kraang equivalent) that looked somewhat promising, but he knew he wouldn't be able to see the files just quite yet. They were in a format designed for the Kraang holograms and computers back in their base, not the hand-designed laptop Donatello had put together from scraps and old junk. He could convert them to something more Earth-like, but it'd take time, so he'd unfortunately have to wait at least until the morning before he could get any useful information out of them... With a sigh, Donnie set up the conversion, and watched as the estimated time remaining block appeared on the screen. 16 hours, 23 minutes, and 8 seconds to go.</p><p>    "Guess this'll have to wait after all," Donnie grumbled, leaning back in his chair. He'd wanted to read all about this hours ago, but he supposed good things take time. He had managed to get past their new and upgraded security, though! Better to focus on the positives. He would have more data later, and hopefully gain enough knowledge of the portals to create one to the other universe right in his own lab.</p><p>    Satisfied with his work for now, Donnie stood up and stretched. A glance at the clock told him it was late the next afternoon, and he'd stayed up nearly the whole day when they were supposed to be sleeping. He wasn't surprised, but was rather upset at this news; Leo and New April would probably give him crap for it later, saying "two hours of sleep again aren't going to cut it" again and what not. </p><p>    To be fair, he knew they were right. That didn't mean he had to like it, though.</p><p>    So with another yawn, Donnie shut the lights off of his lab, making sure to leave his computer to run to complete its tasks. He glanced around once more just to make sure all was safe, and then, Donnie left for his room to savor the few hours of sleep he had left to obtain.</p><p>    He didn't see the way his screen began to change.</p><p>***</p><p class="">    "You can't be serious."</p><p class="">    "I am." </p><p class="">    Donnie stood back with New April and Mikey, staring at his two older brothers facing off in yet another argument, the first of the night. About ten minutes ago, Leo had announced that he'd gotten Splinter's permission to go on a recon mission, one just to figure out where the Kraang were sending the other Michelangelo and Raphael out and for whatever other information they could find. Everyone was ecstatic to finally get out of the lair and start again.</p><p class="">    That is, until Leo clarified who exactly he had gotten permission for. Only he and Donnie would be going.</p><p class="">    "You can't expect me to just sit here while you're fighting other me and Mikey!" Raphael exclaimed, and then gestured to April, "And you're not even taking her? Really? The one person here who knows what they're like? We hardly know them or their weaknesses!"</p><p class="">    "They're us, Raph," Leo rolled his eyes, "It shouldn't be too hard, we'll take them down the same way we'd take you or Mikey down. But yes, she's staying behind too."</p><p class="">    April scowled, "Why? That's not fair!"</p><p class="">    "Yeah!" Mikey joined in now, wearing the angriest face he could manage, "It's not fair dude! What did I do? Why do I gotta stay but Donnie gets to go?"</p><p class="">    Leonardo sighed, and crossed his arms over his plastron. "April is staying behind because this is a strictly recon mission, and the other turtles know her well and if we do run into them, we want to watch them carefully. They might be able to sense her better than us since they've known her for so long. Mikey is staying behind because the other Mikey was targeting him specifically, and Raph is staying behind because the other Raphael was also targeting him and he still needs at least another day to rest up," Leo said, pretending he hadn't been trying to deepen his voice to imitate Captain Ryan in an attempt to make his team listen better.</p><p class="">    They all pretended not to notice.</p><p class="">    "What?" April blinked, "Come on, that is not fair at all! If anything, I should know how to sneak up on them the best."</p><p class="">    "Leo, are you an idiot?!" Raphael demanded, marching up to his brother and pointing accusingly at him, "You saw how badly we got beat against two of them when all of us were fighting. Why would just you and Donnie fighting them be any better?"</p><p class="">    "Because we're not fighting them," Leo said, "We're just watching. And I don't even know if we'll be able to find them anyways, we might just be watching some empty Kraang bases and nothing more."</p><p class="">    Mikey pouted, "But if we're not even fighting them, why do I gotta stay behind? You said it was because other Mikey targeted me but that shouldn't be-"</p><p class="">    "Because I'm the leader, I already talked it over with Splinter, and what I say goes." Leo cut Mikey off, tone harsher than normal. With a look that dared anyone to challenge him again, Leo effectively silenced the group, and then he turned around and marched off. "Donnie, come on, we're going."</p><p class="">    Donnie frowned. Mikey had a point—Leo's reasoning seemed... off, like there was something else that he wasn't telling them. There was more to the story and he knew it. Donnie just had to figure out what it was. </p><p class="">    "Whatever," Raph muttered, "Go get stomped to pieces by them for all if that's what you want. Call us if you need backup, or don't, I don't care." </p><p class="">    With those words, he stormed off to his room, leaving Mikey and April to glance at each other in concern. Donnie finally followed Leo out of the lair.</p><p>    Leo marched out into the sewer tunnels silently, leaving no opening for conversation. Donnie was definitely right; something else was up. Questions spun through Donnie's mind as he tried to figure out what Leo's plan really was. Did he find something out about new April? Why didn't he trust her to come on a mission; was she actually working for the Kraang? No, that'd make no sense. Leo would never leave her alone with Mikey and Raph if that were the case. Did he count her as a liability then? That didn't make any sense either since she'd already single-handedly escaped a Kraang facility overrun with hundreds of bots. April O'Neil could take care of herself.</p><p>    And April aside, why wouldn't he take Mikey? Raphael was injured and he understood not taking him, but even as distracted as Mikey usually was, he was a great ninja. They needed the extra fighter...</p><p>    Donnie waited until they were out of the sewers and up on the rooftops to ask the questions on his mind. </p><p>    "Leo-"</p><p>    "I wasn't lying," His brother interrupted before he could even finish speaking, but refused to make eye contact. "Raph is too injured, and other Raph and Mikey really were targeting both of them."</p><p>    It seemed that he had been expecting the questioning. "Okay," Donnie said slowly, eyes narrowed in suspicion, "That's still not enough of a reason. Rahzar likes to target Mikey and you've never made him stay home before for that. You know he can hold his own. And you left out April there; you left her behind too." Donnie approached his older brother carefully, setting one hand on his shoulder and placing himself directly into his view to force him to meet his eyes, "Leo, this isn't like you. What's really going on?"</p><p>    An achingly long moment of silence passed, dragging its claws in the dirt and slowing down the passage of time until it was painful. Donnie wondered if Leo was just going to ignore him until he stopped asking, or maybe when that didn't work he'd pull the "<em>I'm the leader, what I say goes</em>" card, which Donnie hated more than anything. He was fully ready to argue it too. Usually, Donnie let those slide since Leo's plans were normally pretty well thought out, but this? </p><p>    No way. Donnie wasn't going to let something like that slide here.</p><p>    "Leo..." He said again, gentle, yet threatening his demands clearly. A defeated sigh left Leo's lips and he knew he'd won. </p><p>    "We should've won," Leonardo said, still refusing to meet his brother's eyes, "We would've won. The other Michelangelo was trapped, and I had their Raphael done for. He would've fallen and been knocked out, and then you could have gotten the mind devices out easily once they were both unconscious. The only reason that didn't happen was because New April stopped me from attacking their Raph."</p><p>    "Wait," Donnie froze, backing up slightly, "Are you saying this is all her fault?"</p><p>    "No, I'm saying she needs to understand that we can't pull our punches on enemies who aren't going to pull theirs if we ever want a chance of saving them." Leo faced Donnie finally, speaking firmly. "Raph wouldn't have gotten beaten so badly and their Mikey wouldn't have escaped because our Mikey was worried about our Raph. It's not her fault, but..."</p><p>    Donnie folded his arms across his chest, raising one brow ridge, "So you're saying you're not blaming her, it's not her fault, but it is her fault?"</p><p>    "It's for her own good too," Leo insisted, "Those guys are her family. Would you want to watch some strangers beat up evil versions of me, Raph, or Mikey?"</p><p>    "No, I wouldn't want to watch, I'd want to help fix you guys."</p><p>    "Well," Leo said, "I'm not sure she can help. I don't know her skills exactly, but they're probably similar to our April and she's... still training."</p><p>    "Don't underestimate April, Splinter's training her!" Donnie exclaimed, "She's fought Karai, Foot Soldiers, Kraang, and she's training to be a Kunoichi too!" He paused, looking off to the side as he thought, before he frowned. "And if we're talking about New April specifically, I haven't seen her fight much either. But she did manage to escape a locked room in a building loaded with Kraang in a universe that isn't her own. She has to have some skills if she did that."</p><p>    "Still, based on what I've seen, she's not willing to use anything she knows to actually attack the other turtles." Leo shook his head, "We can't go easy on them. We're gonna have to completely knock them out, and we can't pull our punches on them for that."</p><p>    "Didn't you and Splinter get mad at Raph for wanting to do exactly that with the Purple Dragons a few months back?" Donnie asked, "When they attacked Murakami's shop and you let them go?"</p><p>    "Yeah well, that didn't result in one of us no longer breathing."</p><p>    Donnie paused, staring at Leo, who was no longer making eye contact again. <em>So, that was what this was really about.</em></p><p>    Leo was pissed at them for nearly killing Raph.</p><p>    "Not to say that I agree that leaving them all behind is a good solution for all of this," Donnie said slowly. "Since I don't, but what about Mikey? Leaving Raph behind makes sense with his concussion and I guess I see why you wouldn't want other April here, but Mikey didn't do anything wrong."</p><p>    Leo chuckled, "Mikey's decided New April is his best friend now or something, have you seen them? He's attached to her at the hip. If I took him, he'd probably let all this slip to her, accidentally or not."</p><p>    The leader turned back to staring at the night sky, starless and lit up from the lights of the city. Donnie found himself sitting on the ledge, and Leo joined him soon after. There was silence once again. While it too was uncomfortable, it wasn't hostile as it was earlier, and so the two let it be for a few moments. </p><p>    Then, Donnie remembered.</p><p>    "Just how hard on them do you want to go, exactly?" He asked, "Because you know their Mikey is only thirteen, right?"</p><p>    "He's thirteen?" Leo's eyes widened and his jaw dropped open, "They're only thirteen?"</p><p>    "Well, at least Mikey is," Donnie pondered, "I mean, maybe they all are, but the way April worded it makes me think they're different ages since she specified Mikey and not all of them. But yes, at least Mikey is."</p><p>    Leo stared at Donnie in disbelief. "So we have to fight a little kid?"</p><p>    "We're only fifteen Leo."</p><p>    "Still, that's a big difference from thirteen!" Leo exclaimed, "Wait, why are they even outside at thirteen? Splinter didn't even let us <em>think</em> about going above ground at that age, and they're outside hanging out on rooftops getting kidnapped by aliens?" He scoffed, "How irresponsible are they?"</p><p>    Donnie shrugged, one leg dangling off the edge of the building. "I don't know Leo, I think their universe is more different from ours than we first thought. Maybe it's safer too or something. Their April seemed really surprised when we said we weren't going to go after them in the daytime. At first I thought it was because she was anxious to get them all back, but I don't know anymore."</p><p>    Leonardo nodded in agreement, "Yeah, and she told me their Splinter laid around watching TV all day. Imagine that."</p><p>    "Wait, seriously?" Donnie's mouth twitched into a grin, "Sensei watching TV?"</p><p>    "Yup, and get this," Leo tried to hide his humored smile, though he was clearly failing at it, "April called him Splints. She called him that like it was normally what she called him, and she was more careful about referring to our Sensei as Master Splinter. I think that must mean in her universe, he's cool with it."</p><p>    "I don't even know what'd happen if we tried to call him that."</p><p>    "Me neither," Leo finally stopped trying to keep himself from smiling, "and Mikey was pestering New April about all the details of her world and he told me about some of it. Apparently one of their bad guys is a mutant pig gourmet chef and another is a hippo magician."</p><p>    Donnie burst out laughing, quickly covering his mouth to keep his volume down. Leo joined in too, and Donnie couldn't stop.</p><p>    "Man, their universe sounds so weird. And kind of fun." He said in between laughs.</p><p>    "Yeah, it sounds a lot more fun," Leo sighed longingly, "And they don't have any Kraang there either. I haven't asked about the Foot, but maybe they have less of them too. Must be a lot easier."</p><p>    "It isn't all that easy!" </p><p>    A shout from behind them made Donnie and Leo jump, spinning around with weapons out instantly. While they were relieved to find no new turtles or Kraang had snuck up on them, the reality was almost worse.</p><p>    A dozen Foot bots stood across from them on the roof, with Rahzar, Fishface, a female ninja neither recognized at their head. The shout had come from the woman, her dark eyes wide and crazed with a mahoney mask concealing the rest of her face. Rahzar and Fishface stood on either side of her. The turtles readied for a fight.</p><p>    "Aw wonderful, it's the Foot," Donnie groaned, "What do you guys want?"</p><p>    "We had gotten some intel from our new recruit here," Fishface grinned, "And so we were just eavesdropping, to see if it was accurate."</p><p>    "So it's all true then?" Rahzar asked, a humorous smile in his words, "You guys have to fight yourselves? Well I think that change sounds nice. You guys will get a taste of your own medicine for a change, I like this plan!"</p><p>    Fishface laughed, "Maybe we'll have to go thank those ugly aliens, sometime, though I still intend to destroy you all myself."</p><p>    Leo clenched his jaw, grip tightening on his swords. </p><p>    "Enough chatting!" The woman shouted, stepping out in front of them, "Less talk, more fight. I wanna see what these guys can do!"</p><p>    She unsheathed a blade, and Donnie looked to Leo with an exasperated sigh.</p><p>    "So much for no fighting, huh?" He muttered, "If only we had Raph or Mikey here."</p><p>    Leo began to regret his earlier decision.</p><p>***</p><p>    "Ugh, I can't believe Leo left us behind!"</p><p>    Raphael kicked the side of his bed, glaring at it with a rage as though it were the sole cause of every problem he'd ever had. He kicked it again, and again, and then once more for good measure, before collapsing on top of it to scream into the pillow. It was times like these that he really missed having Spike to rant to. Those were the days, when Spike would sit on his dresser and munch on a leaf while Raph ranted and ranted about the days events and troubles with his brothers. He'd give anything to have that again.</p><p>    Sure, he had recently found a new friend in Slash, and he loved him—now that he'd gotten over his whole "<em>being evil</em>" phase, he was a great friend—but it wasn't the same. It never would be.</p><p>    Raph groaned and flipped over on his bed to stare angrily at the ceiling. The concrete above him was gray and cracked, but lit up with the same yellow color from his light that painted the whole room with a brownish tint. His eyes traced the familiar cracks and scratches above him; he'd counted them a dozen times before already in an attempt to calm down (there were exactly 214 of them, with another 23 tracing their way down his wall above his door), and didn't feel like doing it again. His head still hurt a bit.</p><p>    "Who does Leo think he is, anyways?" He mumbled to himself, "We get hurt on missions all the time, and it's not like he ever rests when he's the injured one. This is so stupid."</p><p>    A knock on the door shook him out of his thoughts. Raph lifted his head up just in time to see Mikey peeking his head through the doorway, looking around the room before turning to his brother. Raph stared back questioningly.</p><p>    "What?"</p><p>    "Uh, just wanted to see if you wanted to come with me and April," Mikey said, "We're gonna go meet up with our April at Murakami's."</p><p>    Raph sat up fully, "Aren't we supposed to stay in?"</p><p>    "Leo said no mission, not no going out," Mikey reasoned, "Come on dude, I wanna show her Murakami's! It'll be fun, more fun than pouting in your room all day anyways."</p><p>    Raphael considered his options. Mikey was right; going out to hang out with the Aprils and get some food did sound more fun than sitting around counting cracks in the ceiling again, and it'd probably even be more fun than sitting around spying on Kraang all night. Maybe he could get his revenge on Leo and Donnie for going without him by rubbing that in their faces later.</p><p>    "Alright," He agreed, standing up. "Let's go."</p><p>    "Yes!" Mikey swung the door open fully, raising his arms up in victory and doing something that was probably supposed to resemble a victory dance of some kind. He ran in and grabbed Raph by the wrist, and then pulled him out of the room before he could get a chance to change his mind. "Murakami's, here we come!"</p><p>    The walk was quick, mostly because it evolved into a run before they even left the lair. Mikey had brought his skateboard and was flying through the tunnels, while Raph and April jogged behind him, gentle conversation and laughter filling their ears.</p><p>    "So where is this Murakami's place anyways?" April asked, "How come you guys can go in there? Is it a Yokai restaurant?"</p><p>    "Yokai?" Mikey asked, looking back curiously, "What's that?"</p><p>    "You guys don't have yokai?"</p><p>    "Murakami is human, but he's blind," Raph explained, "Although he did figure out we're mutants, and the Foot have attacked his place before, so we accidentally got him pretty involved..."</p><p>    "Dude, he said he's thinking about closing soon too and retiring!" Mikey stopped his skateboarding and looked back at the other two, "I think April said he's gonna retire to Florida or something. What are we gonna do?!"</p><p>    "Wait, didn't you say it was a Noodle Shop?" April's face scrunched up in disgust, "The Foot are attacking that? Seriously?"</p><p>    Mikey pouted, walking alongside the other two now, "Yeah, Murakami didn't do anything to them! They were just upset 'cause we were there... They suck."</p><p>    "What about the yokai you were talking about before?" Raph asked suddenly, switching the conversation. "Aren't those mythical Japanese legends or something?" They sounded familiar, but Raph had never been one to pay much attention to mythology or the supernatural—his life was weird enough all on its own. Leo and Splinter probably knew more about the topic than he did.</p><p>    April frowned. "Yeah, I'm surprised you guys don't have them. I guess that means there's no Hidden City here either, huh?"</p><p>    "Hidden City?! What's that? It sounds cool!" Mikey exclaimed, and April laughed. </p><p>    "Yeah, it is!" She nodded enthusiastically, "In my world, yokai built a giant underground city beneath New York, and they have their own society and everything. It's crazy, and the boys loved it once we all discovered it. They're mutants, not yokai, but appearance wise there's not much difference, so they fit right in."</p><p>    "There's a city for mutants in your world?!" Mikey shouted, dropping his skateboard and gasping, "This is not fair! You guys have magic and underground cities and crazy weapons, why's your place gotta be so much better?! I wanna go to a city in public!"</p><p>    "There's nowhere like that at all here?" </p><p>    "No." Raphael's voice was sharp. "We got lucky with Murakami's, but that place is about the only public human area we can show our faces in. That's it." He didn't know whether to be jealous of or hate this other world they were hearing about. Mostly, it just didn't sound real. A second society where they were free to shop, visit restaurants and public spaces, and just exist? Yeah, right. Just the fact that there were apparently enough yokai and mutants in that universe to form an entire society separate from humans sounded too strange to be true. The mutant population here might be growing, but Raph doubted it was even over a hundred yet. A "Hidden City" sounded too good to be true, not to mention unrealistic. Add in mystic magic, and the whole thing sounded just plain ridiculous. LIke a children's fairy tale, or something...</p><p>    April noticed the scowl on Raph's face, and hesitated.</p><p>    "Oh, I'm sorry... that must be pretty hard," She said, "I know staying hidden for so long hurt the guys before they discovered the portal to the city, too..."</p><p>    "It's fine," Raph said, "This is our lives, we're cool with it."</p><p>    "Speak for yourself!" Mikey exclaimed, grabbing April by the shoulders and shaking her, "I wanna go to the Hidden City! Once we get your us's back, can we come too? I wanna visit."</p><p>    April laughed, waiting a moment before taking and removing Mikey's hands from her, "If we can figure out a reliable way to get back and forth from here, yes you can. I promise."</p><p>    "Yes!" Mikey shouted victoriously, hoisting up his skateboard in one hand and quickly climbing out of the sewers. Raph and April hadn't even realized they were already there; the time went by much quicker than expected. They chuckled at the orange turtle's antics before climbing out themselves, covering the manhole behind them and turning to find the original—at least in Raph's and Mikey's eyes—April waiting in front of the restaurant already. </p><p>    "Hey guys, took you long enough." She teased, as all four of them entered the shop. "Where's Donnie and Leo?"</p><p>    "Benched us for a mission," Raph grumbled, and the other April nodded, complaints coming from her as well.</p><p>    "Leo had a bunch of bull for reasons," She said, "But he decided only he and Donnie could go. Stupid, right?"</p><p>    "And weird," April frowned, blue eyes narrowed in thought. "I mean, he's benched people before, but not so many at once. That's strange."</p><p>    It really was, and the more Raph thought about it, the weirder it seemed. He was too angry and focused on just being pissed at Leo at first, but now that he was calmer, it really did seem like a strange thing for him to do.</p><p>    He'd have to interrogate him later.</p><p>    "Hi Murakami-san!" Mikey interrupted their talk as the old man began to approach them, smiling gently, "We brought a friend, hope that's okay."</p><p>    "Any friend of the turtles is a friend of mine," Murakami said kindly, still smiling. April relaxed, feeling at home instantly, even if this universe was as far as was possible from home. She could see instantly why they all liked this place so much. The old man clapped his hands together.</p><p>    "Now, what can I get you guys?"</p><p>    Half an hour later, the four were munching happily on their meals and conversing happily. </p><p>    "An evil doll?" Raphael gaped, before he clutched his stomach and doubled over laughing, "You guys got attacked by an evil doll? That you all willingly brought into the lair?"</p><p>    "Hey, I didn't think it was evil." April defended, arms crossed over her chest, "Raph had been afraid of that thing for years! I had no idea he was right and it actually did wanna destroy us all."</p><p>    Mikey grinned, swiping two of Raph's pizza gyoza while his back was turned. Luckily for him, Raph was too caught up in laughter to even notice.</p><p>    "Your Raph's worst fear is a <em>doll</em>?"</p><p>    "Oh come on, don't be mean," April said, "There's gotta be something you're afraid of too."</p><p>    "Aw," Mikey pouted suddenly, looking around, "Murakami keeps this place too clean. I was totally gonna pull out a roach or something." Raph growled, and the Aprils just laughed.</p><p>    "Your universe sounds pretty crazy," April suddenly said, turning to her counterpart, "But there's plenty of fun here too. Maybe we can hang out sometime, and I can show you around, introduce you to my friends from school too."</p><p>    The New April nodded, "Yeah, I'd totally be down for that. Sounds like fun."</p><p>    "Aw, man," Mikey pouted, "Do you have to go see other humans? I wanna come."</p><p>    Raph punched Mikey in the shoulder, though not harsh enough for him to even flinch, "Come on man, let 'em have fun with the boring people. She's been in the sewers for three days now."</p><p>    Mikey groaned, but agreed reluctantly—with the promise from both Aprils they'd sleepover at the lair afterwards. Mikey was very insistent on that part of the deal. Considering the new April was still avoiding meeting Mr. O'Neil though, it wasn't that hard to convince her. </p><p>    The conversation continued, and the two Aprils started to compare names to see if they had any friends of the same identity. Surprisingly, there didn't look like there were many.</p><p>    "You really don't know a Sunita?" New April exclaimed, "That's awful! She's great, you'd love her. But I guess since she is a yokai that makes sense that you don't know her..."</p><p>    "I just can't believe you don't have a Casey," April commented, turning to Raph, "He's gonna be so mad when he hears about this. Can you imagine?"</p><p>    "Us getting to meet ourselves while he can't?" Raph laughed, "Oh yeah, we're never gonna hear the end of this from him. When's he coming back anyways? I haven't seen him in a while."</p><p>    "He went on a trip with his dad and sister to see their grandpa or something." April pulled out her phone, rereading the texts for reference, "They're visting because he's sick, but Casey never liked him much anyways and was going for moral support for his dad. He'll be back in a day or so."</p><p>    Raph nodded, then turned back to his food, only to find it had all gone mysteriously missing while he was talking. The guilty look on his brother's face told him all he needed to know.</p><p>    "Mikey!"</p><p>    Mikey chuckled nervously, shrinking back a little. Raph growled, raising his fist, when something made everyone freeze in their tracks.</p><p class="">    The door to the shop slammed open. In fell two turtles, wounded and bruised from battle, who collapsed in a pile on the ground. Donnie and Leo panted, out of breath as though they had run the entire way there. Raph instantly realized that whatever Leo had planned had failed, at least on the "we're not going to be fighting" end of things."</p><p class="">    "What happened, you guys?" April exclaimed, jumping up. Her counterpart followed behind, brown eyes wide with concern as the two each ran to help. Mikey and Raph were already at their brothers' sides.</p><p class="">    "Leo, Don, what happened?" Raph exclaimed, helping Leo up while Mikey went to Donnie. Leo was panting, a bruise forming around his right eye, but he was... grinning? Raph scowled, "Dude, why are you smiling, are you brain damaged?"</p><p class="">    "Because," Leo said, looking up to his immediate younger brother, and then to his youngest and the two Aprils. The energy his body was lacking had evidently not disappeared from his mind, and his eyes were wide, shining the way they always did when he finally figured some sort of plan out. He spoke confidently, grinning, and addressed everyone in his group.</p><p class="">    "Because I know what we've been doing wrong in fighting them. I know how we can win."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>:)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. "Great" Plans Do Fail Sometimes, You Know</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Leonardo sorts his plans out with the help of Donatello, and the two try and fight the mysterious new Foot clan soldier. Donnie finally lets his family in on his own plans to help out, but a surprise is waiting for him at home... </p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys, not much to add here but hope you guys enjoy the update! Comments are appreciated a lot, and thank you so much for reading! </p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Trying to figure out what his own brothers' weaknesses were wasn't something Leonardo particularly wanted to do.</p>
<p>    Sure, he'd watched them train sometimes in order to find what they were struggling with so that he could plan out exercises for them during patrol to subtly help them improve, but this? Trying to figure out what their greatest weaknesses were to plot out a way to take them down? That was never what he wanted to do.</p>
<p>    But after watching the other Raphael take his own younger brother down and nearly take his life, he knew it was necessary. He didn't know these new turtles well, but they were just alternate versions of Raph and Mikey, right? They should have the same, or at least similar, weaknesses to them. If he could figure out what he'd do if he were trying to actually fully defeat his brothers in battle, then taking down their counterparts should be a breeze. </p>
<p>    So as soon as he was done telling Splinter what had happened and let the new April know he wanted to talk to her, he had returned to his room to figure this out. And that was where he was now, sitting at the small and rarely used desk he had as one of the only pieces of furniture in his bedroom. Very rarely used—he had to wipe off a thin layer of dust from the top before he could even start to focus on planning. Had it really been so long since he'd used that desk?</p>
<p>    Leonardo didn't like staying in his room much. He spent most of his time with his brothers and, when he wanted a break, just meditated in the dojo. He would go out there now if it weren't for the fact that Splinter and the new April were currently occupying the room. So, he was stuck in here if he didn't want any questions on what he was doing.</p>
<p>    "Okay," Leo muttered to himself, "Just figure it out..."</p>
<p>    Leo had beaten Raph in training many times before, so he started with that. The difference was, there was an unspoken rule to not go too hard on each other in the dojo. Everyone always held back, and real injuries were always avoided. In this hypothetical case of a real battle between the two, none of those rules would apply. So what would Leo do in such a case? Speaking of brute strength only, Raph was stronger than him. So Leo would have to get the advantage some other way. So what was that way?</p>
<p>    He'd probably have use his temper against him. When Raphael was really fired up, he stopped thinking, and it was much easier to get hits on him. The downside was that he was also a bit more dangerous too, and he was slowly learning how to focus that anger into determination. This plan would work much better a few months ago than today, so that left the question of  had this other Raph gotten that far yet? Leo wasn't sure, and he needed to figure that out. If the other Raph could control himself... </p>
<p>    Wait. Leo paused. The whole point of this was that that Raphael couldn't control himself—the Kraang were in charge right now. Would he even be able to exploit a weakness like that? Surely they'd have dealt with that by now.</p>
<p>    Leo decided to push the Raph issue to the side for now. </p>
<p>    Moving onto Mikey, Leo considered how he would take his youngest brother down. He was too trusting and easily distracted, those were his biggest weaknesses. He wasn't sure how he would use those, but he knew he could come up with a plan. He just had to-</p>
<p>    Leo stopped, covering his face with his hands and groaning in frustration. </p>
<p>    "What am I doing?" He murmured, ashamed, "This feels wrong..."</p>
<p>    It really did. He didn't want to plot how to bring about his own brothers downfalls, even if he would never ever use it on them. Leonardo was the big brother and the leader. He was supposed to be protecting them and thinking about ways to help them grow stronger! Not... whatever this was. Even if it was for the right reasons, it felt wrong.</p>
<p>    But Leo wasn't sure he had a choice in the matter. How else was he supposed to bring the alternate versions of them down, before they hurt them all even worse? The Mikeys and Raphs should have the same strengths and weaknesses, right? April mentioned they were different, but at their core they were still both Michelangelo and Raphael. Leo couldn't believe that they were that different. They couldn't be. So that meant he had to think about his own little brothers' weaknesses to take them down no matter what. There wasn't another option.</p>
<p>    But Leo knew he had been fighting with those ideas in mind during their first battle, and they still lost. They lost horribly, nearly losing a brother in the process. Why? Was Leo not using their weaknesses well enough? Did he accidentally go too easy on them, scared to on a subconscious level? No, that didn't make any sense; they were winning at first. They should have won! But then what was the problem? If he had been fighting the way he would have fought against his version of Raph, then why had the other Raphael won?</p>
<p><em>    "Don't hurt him!" </em>The scream still rang in his mind, clear as day, tone desperate and horrified.</p>
<p>    Raphael won because April had stopped him.</p>
<p>    They would've won. Leo just needed to go for one more attack, and the other Raphael would've been knocked out and done for. But the new April's frantic plea had distracted him into showing a moment of weakness and mercy, and Raph had escaped. That mistake had almost cost his little brother his life.</p>
<p>    He knew this whole situation was rough on her, and she hadn't caused this on purpose, but... outcomes outweigh intentions. </p>
<p>    They couldn't afford that weakness again, Leonardo knew. If they wanted to take these turtles down, they would have to fight full force, just as if they were fighting Tigerclaw or the Kraang or Rahzar or Fishface or any of their other enemies. The only thing that mattered was taking them down to get the mind control devices out of their necks, and they could deal with the aftermath of injuries later on. It may be playing dirty, but they had to fully exploit any and all weaknesses they and their counterparts shared. That was the only way they could win.</p>
<p>    Leo began to draw up his plan for the next night. Raph and Mikey wouldn't like it, and neither would April, but it was necessary.</p>
<p>    This was how they would win.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    They were not winning.</p>
<p>    Whoever this new ninja was, she was good. Though chaotic and with attacks clearly decided on in the moment, her kicks and punches were precise and accurate. If Leo had to describe it, he'd say her style reminded him of Karai's somewhat, but with Casey's and Mikey's chaos added in. It was a weird combination he never thought was possible, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't effective.</p>
<p>    and it was one that he was not used to fighting.</p>
<p>    "Ha!" She shouted, landing a harsh kick on Leo's leg that knocked him back. He grimaced, swinging up a sword just in time to catch her blade as it was aimed for his head, then ducking and spinning as three Foot bots joined in attacking him. He sliced through them quickly, before he had to stop to block yet another attack from the woman. </p>
<p>    Leo spared a glance back to see that Donnie was taking on Rahzar and Fishface by himself, and while he was doing well for now, Leo knew they'd beat him soon. Taking on the two of those by oneself was never a good idea. He needed to finish off this ninja and get to him, or at least get away long enough to call for back up.</p>
<p>    "You're good, but your fighting is lame," The ninja complained, jumping and flipping over his head before swinging to land a strike behind him. Leo spun around just in time to block another, and then swung his own weapons. He grinned when landed a hit on her shoulder, but she brushed it off as though she didn't even notice. "Waaaaay more boring than the other blue guy. At least he was fun to fight!"</p>
<p>    "I'm not boring," Leo muttered, not knowing why he was even participating in this argument to defend himself. The ninja just laughed, another strike and block and then again. </p>
<p>    "Yeah, you are!"</p>
<p>    "How do you know so much about them?" Leo hissed out, ducking and sweeping out her legs from underneath her. She landed with a grunt, and Leo didn't bother waiting for a response. He took off running towards Donnie while she was down.</p>
<p>    He pulled out his T-phone as he ran, seconds away from speed dialing Raph. Just one more click and-</p>
<p>
  <b> <em>    Crack</em> </b>
</p>
<p>    A knife landed straight in the middle of the screen, destroying it instantly. Leo looked up to see Fishface standing a few yards away with an evil grin on his face, and Leo pocketed his phone. So much for that plan. He hoped the same fate hadn't met Donnie's T-phone while he was fighting the new ninja... but by the frustrated look on his brother's face right now? Leo had to assume his phone was shattered too.</p>
<p>    He only just managed to join the fight between Rahzar and Fishface and Donnie before the new woman returned to battle, dragging his attention back to her. Leo grimaced, and their blades clashed together over and over and over again, equally matched. The mask she had been wearing earlier had vanished, and her smile matched the chaotic look in her eyes as they fought and she laughed.</p>
<p>    This needed to end, and quick.</p>
<p>    Leo looked around at his surroundings, searching for means of making a plan. As soon as he found it, he allowed himself a grin too. He kicked the girl back, sheathed his swords, and ran towards the edge of the building.</p>
<p>    "What are you doing?!" The Foot soldier shouted, not even attempting to hide her confused expression. Leo just kept running, and the second he knew she was chasing after him, ducked into the alley below, and disappeared into the shadows. </p>
<p>    The woman followed, jumping down from the roof and landing soundlessly. She glanced around, left and right, eyes searching for where the turtle had disappeared off to. He couldn't be far. </p>
<p>    Leo jumped out from behind her, landing a fierce kick to the back that sent her flying. Not managing to catch herself in time, she hit the side of the dumpster across from them face first with such a force that it left her dazed and swaying for several moments. Leonardo wasted no time, swiping her legs out from under her and pointed a sword towards her neck, standing above her. </p>
<p>    The Foot soldier looked up at him from where she lay on the ground, and grinned. Leo frowned. </p>
<p>    "Why are you-" He didn't get to finish his question. The ninja spun around, laughing loudly as she was the one to catch him off balance this time, using a nearby trash can lid to shove his legs out from beneath him. She was up again before he could fall, behind him, and wrapping her arm around his neck in a chokehold. Leo dropped his swords to try to pull her arms away from his neck, but her grip was firm.</p>
<p>    "You will never defeat the Foot Clan!" She shouted, tightening her hold even more as Leo's vision began to blur, "You won't, and neither will the other blue guy. Who, by the way, is a lot more fun to fight—you're too quiet!"</p>
<p>    Leo gasped for breath, feeling himself start to lose consciousness. She frowned.</p>
<p>    "Okay, I know I'm literally choking you right now, but I meant you were too quiet before too!"</p>
<p>    Leo's eyes started to drift closed, but then he heard his name being called out.</p>
<p>    "Leo!"</p>
<p>    A throwing star aimed for her face forced the woman to let go, and she dodged it cleanly. Leo gasped, finally getting air again, and pushed himself away from her. The woman looked up to see Donatello jump down from the building. His bo was noticeably absent from his hands and bruises lined every visible part of his body, she noted, but he was still up and fighting. She growled.</p>
<p>    "Hey, I was busy there!"</p>
<p>    "Sorry to bother you," Donnie rolled his eyes, straightening his pose, "Should I come back a different time? Does ten minutes from now work better? After you've knocked my brother out?"</p>
<p>    "Yes, actually!" She shouted, taking off in a sprint towards her new opponent, "That would work great!"</p>
<p>    Donnie stood his ground, but he could hear Rahzar and Fishface already; he had managed to stun them, but it could only hold them for a few short moments. It was time to go.</p>
<p>    Dodging the incoming punch, Donnie ran over to where Leo was standing and latched onto his arm. His eyes were white as he pulled the smoke bomb from its holding place, and Donnie met the ninja's eyes as he raised his hand above his head. He slammed the smoke bomb onto the ground in front of him. </p>
<p>    The woman coughed, pink and purple smoke clouding her vision and her lungs. She looked around desperately for her opponents and, when she couldn't find them, her allies.</p>
<p>    By the time Rahzar and Fishface had arrived, the smoke had cleared. The two turtles were gone.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    Running.</p>
<p>    That was all Donnie and Leo were capable of in that instant, and that was all that was on their minds. Put as much distance between themselves and the Foot as possible. Everything else came second to that.</p>
<p>    So the two ninjas sprinted across rooftops and alleys, farther and farther away from the battle they had just lost, fueled purely by adrenaline. They held no shame in fleeing, not when it was survival. Too much was at stake to do otherwise—they needed to survive this battle if they wanted to win the war.</p>
<p>    And so they ran until they were a mile away, in another part of the city completely, and only then did they allow themselves to rest.</p>
<p>    Leo climbed down into the alley, Donnie following close behind. Usually, the two felt relatively safe speaking on rooftops away from human sights, but the sky was too visible right now. Though they were fairly certain the Foot hadn't followed them, they wanted to be safe, and the space between the buildings offered more safety for that right now than the openness of rooftops. One random civilian seeing them was better than the Foot.</p>
<p>    Donnie collapsed onto the ground besides an old dumpster, Leo soon sitting right besides him. It was quiet for now.</p>
<p>    "I gotta ask sensei for a new bo," Donnie mumbled, huffing out a humorless laugh, "Think he's tired of that yet?"</p>
<p>    Avoiding discussing the actual problem at hand? Leo could do that. He chuckled.</p>
<p>    "Probably. What is that even, your tenth one this month?"</p>
<p>    "Seventh, actually," Donnie corrected, and then put his hands up in defense. "Come on, it's not my fault! If your weapons were wooden too they'd be broken just as often!"</p>
<p>    "Mhmm, sure they would," Leo teased, well aware that he was completely right, but not really caring. "Keep telling yourself that."</p>
<p>    "You laugh at me now, but wait until we get home and Raph hears about this. It won't just me being laughed at then."</p>
<p>    "Oh god," Leo groaned, shutting his eyes and leaning his head against the brick wall behind him, "He's going to be telling us 'I told you so' for months, isn't he?"</p>
<p>    "Yup," Donnie sighed, "So get ready."</p>
<p>    A car drove by outside the alley, slowing slightly and making the two turtles tense. The breaks squealed ever so slightly as it stopped... But fortunately for them, it then drove on, finishing whatever it had done. Leo exhaled, and turned back to his brother.</p>
<p>    "I've never seen whoever that new Foot ninja was before. Who was she?</p>
<p>    Donnie shrugged, wincing slightly at the movement, "I have no idea. They said she was a new recruit, so I guess that?"</p>
<p>    "I thought they were sticking to bots though." Leonardo frowned. Since they gained the ability to do so, the Foot had replaced all human soldiers with robot ones—save for their leaders, like Xever and Bradford (not that they were human anymore, but the point still stood). Leo had thought they were completely done with using living ninjas unless absolutely necessary... why did they need this new woman? And why does she know so much about the other turtles?</p>
<p>    "That was strange," Donnie agreed, after Leo pointed this knowledge out to him. "Maybe she's with the Kraang then."</p>
<p>    "Great," Leo groaned, standing up, "Another enemy to beat. This is just great... Exactly what we needed."</p>
<p>    Donnie huffed out another humorless laugh, "What, fighting our evil selves wasn't enough for you?" He asked, rising to his feet as well, bracing himself on the wall. Leo shook his head sadly.</p>
<p>    "We didn't even get to spy on the Kraang at all," He said. It technically wasn't too late in the evening to still go do that, but Leo knew Donnie wasn't up for another mission after a beatdown like that (and neither was he). That would have to wait until the next night. Another 24 hours wasted.</p>
<p>    Every moment, this situation worsened.</p>
<p>    "How are we gonna beat them, Leo?" Donnie asked suddenly, "I didn't say it before but... you're wrong about the new April. We really do need her if we want to take down the new turtles, and we need her with us."</p>
<p>    "Why?" Leo crossed his arms, "We're just going to hit them hard and fast."</p>
<p>    "I'm not beating a thirteen year old kid into unconsciousness and then doing the same to his brother in front of him when there's a better way," Donnie deadpanned, "Under the Kraang's control or not, that's just cruel. Not to mention that they're all aiming to kill us, and defending against that while not doing too bad of damage against them is going to be downright impossible. You know that."</p>
<p>    "Well then what do you suggest we do Donnie?" Leo demanded. He really didn't know what his brother wanted from him; this was war. He didn't want to beat up a kid anymore than Donnie did, but a fight was a fight. The other Mikey made it clear he was going to do all he could to keep the device in his neck, and their mercy could only go so far before it hurt him too by leaving him under Kraang control even longer.</p>
<p>    "I don't know, maybe actually think about what we're doing before we rush into battle again?" Donnie rolled his eyes, beginning to walk over to the street to the nearest manhole. If the Foot had followed them, they would've shown up by now. It should be safe enough, Donnie reasoned. </p>
<p>    "We need to figure out a plan specifically to get each of them back, one by one. And if you still weren't in angry big brother mode because one of us almost got killed <em>you'd</em> be the one suggesting that."</p>
<p>    "What's that supposed to mean?" Leo asked as he started to follow him, but winced when he realized he was still unsteady on his feet. His legs were weak, his head pounded, and his neck ached. Donnie wrapped an arm around him for support without a word, helping him over to the manhole before the two separated to crawl down into the manhole. </p>
<p>    "It means you're not thinking clearly," Donnie rolled his eyes, returning the manhole cover to its correct position, limping slightly from his injuries. "Come on. If we get New April to tell us more about them, we can set up a trap or at least a strategy to get each of them back one by one. They have to have their own weaknesses."</p>
<p>    "They're just Raph and Mikey, Donnie," Leo argued, once again leaning on Donnie for support, though he was pretty sure Donnie was struggling a bit too and leaning just as much on him. "We know how they fight, we can just use that." Leo frowned, looking around at the tunnels before he stopped abruptly in his tracks, "Wait, Donnie, where are we going? This isn't the way to the lair."</p>
<p class="">    "Mikey texted me before the fight, let me know they took New April to Murakami's." Donnie replied. "And no, Leo, we know how <em>our</em> Mikey and Raph fights. I think that... these guys are a completely different case."</p>
<p class="">    "The Mikeys fought almost identically on the roof."</p>
<p class="">    "Not necessarily!" Donnie shook his head, "For one thing, they had different weapons. They both liked to do a lot of flips and yell and laugh during battle, but they each have their own distinct fighting style. That's not even mentioning Raphael. The other Raph relies a lot on brute force like our Raph, but ours is smaller and focuses specific areas to attack more so than he did. And again, different weapons."</p>
<p class="">    Leo frowned, pausing for a moment to catch his breath—somehow, he was still out of breath, "The other Raphael didn't even have a pair of sai, and he didn't try and stab anything like ours does." He agreed.</p>
<p class="">    "Exactly!" Donnie nodded, "And I bet there's more differences too—especially in regards to personality. The mind control devices do allow the victims to maintain a basic sense of self, so I wonder-"</p>
<p class="">    "-if we can use that to draw them out and or take them down," Leo grinned, "You're right."</p>
<p class="">    Donnie stopped for a moment to look around at their surroundings, recognizing their stop and hoisting himself up the ladder; Murakami's was on this block. "And we need April for that, and the rest of our team."</p>
<p class="">    Leo hesitated, and then climbed up behind Donnie. He sighed in defeat.</p>
<p class="">    "Fine, you got me. I was wrong." </p>
<p class="">    "Mhmm," Donnie grinned, "Now let's go find them and get to work. I got something back in my lab too that's gonna help us, so I wanna hurry."</p>
<p class="">    "Oh?" Leo asked, "What is it?"</p>
<p class="">    "That's for me to know and you to find out soon," Donnie smirked, Murakami's just up ahead. It was across a busy street, and they'd have to sprint despite their injured conditions unforunately... but at least it wouldn't be for more than a few seconds. He glanced at Leo over his shoulder.</p>
<p class="">    "You can find out after," He clarified, "after you fix things with the team."</p>
<p class="">***</p>
<p class="">    "I don't wanna say 'I told you so', but-"</p>
<p class="">    "Don't lie. You absolutely want to say that."</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah," Raph grinned, watching as his older brother rolled his eyes, "I told you so. Look who's the injured one now. You gonna bench yourself for a couple days there, Fearless?"</p>
<p class="">    "Ha ha, very funny," Leo mocked, trudging through the sewer water. After Leo had announced the change of plans in Murakami's, the group had paid and thanked the old man before returning home to the lair. Leo and Donnie were feeling a bit better since the talk had allowed them to sit and rest for another thirty minutes, but he still was ready to crash for the night. The Foot were never fun to fight. </p>
<p class="">    "So, what's the plan now?" April asked, pushing her red bangs out of her eyes as she walked alongside her counterpart. "Get to know the other turtles, then make a plan for attack?"</p>
<p class="">    The New April grinned, "I can tell you all you need to know. I've known these guys for almost a decade now, I know <em>all</em> their secrets."</p>
<p class="">    "That's the plan," Leo nodded, "Or, the plan to make the plan, I guess."</p>
<p class="">    "Dudes, what if they're mad April tells us all their secrets?" Mikey gasped, hopping over the turnstiles and turning to face them all, "What if she tells us something reaaallyy embarrassing, and they stay evil, mad that she blabbed?!"</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, that's definitely a huge thing we should all be worrying about," Raph rolled his eyes. New April just laughed.</p>
<p class="">    "I promise not to tell you guys anything too embarrassing." She said, "How's that?"</p>
<p class="">    Despite his earlier worries, Mikey pouted, almost disappointed. "Aww, but I still wanted to know!" The other April joined in laughing too.</p>
<p class="">    Upon stepping into the lair, Donnie perked up, eyes lit up in excitement.</p>
<p class="">    "Actually, there's another step to the plan I think you guys are really going to like," He announced, grinning widely. "I hacked into the Kraang databases a few hours ago, and have been downloading and readying some files the past few hours to find out more about how their portals to the other dimension work. If this works, I can reprogram the location set on the Kraang portal device I got a while back."</p>
<p class="">    "Wait," April's dark eyes went wide, mouth agape, "Do you mean-"</p>
<p class="">    "That I might be able to open up a portal to your world?" Donnie put his hands on his hips, smiling confidently, "Yes, yes I do mean that!"</p>
<p class="">    New April gasped and grabbed the nearest person to her by the shoulders, who just so happened to be Raphael, and shook him excitedly. "I could get Splints and Draxum over here to help!! That'll make all of this so much easier!!" She turned back to the purple turtle, "Donnie, you're amazing, oh my god! This is perfect!"</p>
<p class="">    "Well, what are we waiting for?" Leo asked, gesturing towards Donnie's lab, "Lead the way."</p>
<p class="">    The group was filled with adrenaline and excitement as they headed towards the large room that Donnie practically made his home, April more excited than anyone else. She knew that Splinter must be worried sick back home, his sons missing for days now, and her own parents couldn't be fairing any better. Bringing him into this battle would be an amazing improvement, and bringing the newly reformed Draxum over too? A guaranteed win, for sure! Donnie felt the same way. Reinforcements were just what they needed.</p>
<p class="">    But the second he entered the lab, he knew something was wrong.</p>
<p class="">    The room looked normal enough. His lab was clean and organized, save for the cluttered desk he had been working at several hours before and never cleaned up. His inventions were all in order, as were the algae pools he kept growing in the corners, but... he could just feel it in his very bones. Something was off. Something went wrong.</p>
<p class="">    His eyes landed on his laptop, and he sprinted over to it without another word. The group behind him exchanged confused glances.</p>
<p class="">    Donatello turned on his computer, and his heart nearly stopped beating in his chest.</p>
<p class="">    "No..." He breathed out, eyes going wide in horror, "No, this... this can't be happening."</p>
<p class="">    "Donnie?" April asked, approaching him and setting a hand on his shoulder, her counterpart and his brothers close behind. "What's wrong?"</p>
<p class="">    "Everything-" Donnie shook his head, chest tightening and he could swear he wasn't getting any oxygen. The back of his neck felt hot. "Everything is gone. My computer- it's been wiped clean. <em>Everything is gone</em>."</p>
<p class="">    "Gone?" Leo asked, "What? How's that possible?"</p>
<p class="">    "I don't know, Leo!" Donnie's voice began to rise, as disbelief turned to panic, "It's gone, all my files all my work all my everything, it's all gone!!" Donnie clicked rapidly over the screen, "And I mean everything! All my data, all my files, all my notes, all my apps," He paused, then started laughing hysterically, feeling numb and yet overwhelmingly panicked at the same time, "Hell, no way. Even the internet browsers are gone. There's nothing on here, nothing at all! It's been wiped clean!"</p>
<p class="">    Mikey hesitated, "Everything?"</p>
<p class="">    "Can you get it back?" Raph demanded, "Didn't you back it up on some hard drive somewhere?"</p>
<p class="">    Donnie rubbed the side of his face, "Not since last month! Do you know how much I've done in the last month, Raphael?! Do you?! This is- I can't-" Donnie couldn't breathe, his hands shook and he rubbed his face repeatedly, not knowing what to do with his hands. This was bad, <em>this was bad this was bad this was bad-</em></p>
<p class="">    "Wait," New April spoke softly, leaning over Donnie's shoulder to point at something, "What's that?"</p>
<p class="">    Off to the side of the screen, sat one lone file. Untitled and unassuming, Donnie instantly knew it wasn't his own—he had a very specific organizational system on his computer, and he never left anything untitled. Everything he had had been deleted, but one thing... one thing had been added. </p>
<p class="">    Heart pounding, Donnie slowly clicked on the file, and a simple word document popped up. </p>
<p class="">    Only three words. Millions of files and a practically infinite amount of data had been erased from his laptop, but three words remained. Those three words would haunt his mind forever.</p>
<p class="">    He didn't bother to read them aloud. His mouth was dry; he knew he couldn't even if he tried.</p>
<p class="">
  <em>"Nice try</em>
</p>
<p class="">
  <em>- Bootyyyshaker9000"</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Ready for Battle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Donnie does some damage control, and the team gets ready to get the other turtles back. One more member of the 2012 team returns.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    April couldn't believe what she was seeing.</p>
<p>    Well, she could; this was definitely something her Donnie was capable of. But she hated it so much, she didn't want to believe that it had actually happened.</p>
<p>    Neither did this Donnie, apparently.</p>
<p>    "I can't believe he did this—so much work, gone!" Words spilled from Donatello's mouth as he paced back and forth in his lab, his face twisting into an expression that could only be described as pure anguish and rage. Though his voice was loud, he forced it down, hands gesturing wildly as if he just had to move and couldn't get free his mind in any other way. April was honestly impressed at his ability to keep from screaming. </p>
<p>    Sure, he had kicked his desk several times now and broken a few flasks, but she could hardly blame him.</p>
<p>    "And you're sure that your universe's Donnie is behind this?" Leo asked again, speaking low enough that Donnie couldn't hear him. April nodded.</p>
<p>    "Bootyyyshaker9000?" She asked, "Oh yeah, it's definitely him."</p>
<p>    "I'm going to strangle myself!" Donnie screeched, as Mikey and this universe's April desperately tried to calm him down. Leo watched them but made no effort to move; those two were better at dealing with Donnie's emotions than he ever could be, so he and Raph stood off to the side with the new April. This kind of discussion was needed anyways.</p>
<p>    Raph raised one brow ridge. "<em>Why</em>?"</p>
<p>    "Why what?" April frowned, confused. Raph rolled his eyes.</p>
<p>    "Why would he <em>willingly</em> call himself that?" He asked, a disgusted look on his face. April shrugged.</p>
<p>    "In his words," She said, "He 'likes to dance'. I don't know, that's not important! What's important is what he just did!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah..." Leo muttered, eyes locked on the chaotic scene in front of him. "That is the biggest issue here..."</p>
<p>    The ranting abruptly halted as Donnie froze, ceasing in his yelling and pacing and kicking the desk for just a single moment. His eyes widened, and somehow, his already horrified expression grew even more terrified. He spun around to face the main group.</p>
<p>    "Raph, Mikey, April!" Donnie exclaimed, "Give me your T-Phones!"</p>
<p>    "Uh, why?" Raph asked hesitantly. Judging by the enraged look this put on Donatello's face, this was the wrong thing to say.</p>
<p>    "Because I said so!" Donnie shouted, eyes practically popping out of his head. He clearly was not accepting "no" for an answer. Raph raised his hands in surrender, handing over his phone, as did Mikey and April—no one wanted to argue with him now. Donnie nodded a thanks and took them in his hands.</p>
<p>    And promptly slammed them into the concrete floor and stomped them into pieces.</p>
<p>    "What the-"</p>
<p>    "Hey!"</p>
<p>    "Donnie!!" Mikey shouted, eyes wide and hands outstretched, "Bro, What are you doing?! You just destroyed all my high scores on like, ten different games!!"</p>
<p>    "Those are connected to my laptop," Donnie explained frantically, "He probably hacked into them too, and read everything that's ever been on there! Hell, he probably connected to the microphones too and has been listening to everything we've been saying for the entire night!"</p>
<p>    "Everything?" Leo blinked. Huh, he'd never thought he'd be thankful to Fishface for destroying his and Donnie's phones, but here he was. At least their earlier conversation was safe. "Wait, what about locations?"</p>
<p>    "I already worried about our phones being hacked, and programmed all precise location tracking on the T-Phones to disable themselves within a five mile radius of the lair," Donnie said, "So we shouldn't have to worry about that, except..." Donatello turned suddenly to April, the one he was most concerned with as of now. "Has he ever had access to your phone, ever?"</p>
<p>    "Uh, yeah..." April nodded, remembering the many, many programs and upgrades her Donnie had added to her cell phone over the years, making it arguably one of the most advanced cell phones on the planet. She really didn't want it destroyed if she could help it... "But it hasn't been connected to the internet or any data since I've gotten here. The company I used doesn't exist here and so it's just kinda been sitting here... Even bluetooth has been off."</p>
<p>    "He couldn't have gotten in if that's the case, right?" Leo asked, "Do you have to break hers too?"</p>
<p>    "Yes!" Donnie exclaimed, grabbing Leo by the shoulders and shaking him, "Are you crazy?! This guy has complete access to all of the Kraang's tech and knowledge. You've seen how advanced they are—they're controlling his freaking brain Leonardo!! Do you think he can't use that same level of technology to figure out how to get back into a phone he's already been in just because there's no reception?! Hell, chances are he's listening right now! Judging by the fact the lair hasn't been invaded, he probably hasn't gotten the lair's location yet, but if we wait another five minutes that might not be the case anymore."</p>
<p>    "He's got a point, April," Raph muttered, looking towards the New April with a sympathetic frown on his face. Her counterpart set a comforting hand on her shoulder, blue eyes staring worriedly at her, and April sighed.</p>
<p>    "Alright, fine," She muttered, pulling her phone from her pocket and raising it above her head. "But <em>I'm</em> doing it. No one gets to destroy my phone but me."</p>
<p>    April slammed her phone onto the ground without another word, screen cracking in a hundred pieces. She stomped on it twice for good measure. </p>
<p>    Donnie nodded a thanks in her direction, "I'll make everyone new ones," He promised, standing besides his desk and beginning to type rapidly on his computer, "You too, New April. But I need some time."</p>
<p>    "Is there anything we can do to help?" Leo asked. Donnie's attention was now focused entirely on the screen in front of him. Without even looking away, he reached over and grabbed a few various pieces of tech that no one else in the group knew the names of, messing with them before going back to typing. Leo frowned when he still didn't get an answer, "Donnie?"</p>
<p>    "I need you all to get out."</p>
<p>    New April raised one brow, "Say what now?"</p>
<p>    "None of you understand the damage he just did on us," Donnie hissed out, eyes still locked on the screen, "None of you realize how much our missions rely on my tech and you have no idea how many months he just put us back with this! I need to do damage control and repair and try and get back as much as I can, and to do that, I need to be <b><em>alone</em></b>."</p>
<p>    No one spoke for several long moments. The clacking of keyboard keys echoed off the walls, the only sound in the room, aside from Donnie's labored breathing. He seemed a fraction calmer than he had been a few minutes before, but they all knew that was just because he was doing what he always did to cope; fixating completely on the technological task in front of him. Nothing was going to break him out of that trance. And if anyone tried, they wouldn't like the result.</p>
<p>    "Dee," Mikey said, but his brother cut him off before he could finish his sentence.</p>
<p>    "Get out."</p>
<p>    The tension in the room thickened as Mikey shrunk back. Donnie still kept his eyes ahead of him, and surely only one person could break his focus now.</p>
<p>    "Donnie," April, his April, began. She stepped forward carefully, with a hand outstretched towards him. "Are you sure-"</p>
<p>    "I said, <em><b>get out</b></em>!" </p>
<p>    The scene froze, Donatello finally breaking his gaze away from the screen to stare at the group. His eyes were red—it wasn't just their natural reddish hue this time either, but they were horribly bloodshot. His breaths came out in pants, his shoulders were tense, and his hands shook. Though his body language was worrying, nothing terrified the group more so than his actions. <em>He just yelled at April to get out</em>. Donnie <em>never</em> yelled at April. He never told her to leave, ever.</p>
<p class="">    His lips wavered and if one looked carefully, they could see the way the way his eyes shined with unshed tears of anger and grief. They could see the way Donnie was seconds away from breaking down. Into tears or into pieces, nobody knew, but he was surely about to break. Just like all his work.</p>
<p>    He stared at April with a horrified look on his face, "April, I-"</p>
<p>    "It's okay Donnie, we understand," April whispered, and maybe she thought they did. She knew she understood as well as she possibly could in that moment, at least. He needed to be alone. She blinked a few times, trying to push down the worry and concern bubbling up in her chest. She sighed. Blue eyes avoiding his gaze, she turned around and walked to the doorway.</p>
<p>    "Come get us when you're ready, okay?"</p>
<p>    With heavy hearts, his family took a step back, and they left him to pick up the pieces of his broken lab on his own.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    The next 17 hours passed in relative silence. The door to Donnie's lab stayed locked, and in that time, nothing much had happened. Raph and Leo trained a bit, Mikey and the Aprils played a few rounds of Mario Kart, then trained as well. Then the whole group sat through a few episodes of Space Heroes and the ones who could sleep did so for about an hour. At the beginning, most of them had figured that Donnie would come out on his own, but as the hours passed by, this hope dimmed and dimmed until it was nearly extinguished. </p>
<p>    The door stayed locked. Not a single person who had tried to open the door had had any luck, and that included April. Donnie would not even open the door for her. </p>
<p>    And that was <em>April O'Neil</em>, the girl Donnie had been in love with since the moment he had met her. The girl he had given everything to. If she couldn't get through to him, then who could?</p>
<p>    So they had no choice. All that they could do was wait.</p>
<p>    At the very least, Leo did decide that they could still take the opportunity to discuss the other turtles with the other April. At first, she seemed a little reluctant to try and plot their demise; Leo understood that. He almost felt bad for asking her to do the same thing he had been struggling to do only a few hours before, but he knew they didn't have much other choice. So he had sat down with his group in front of her, and spoke of the things she never wanted to discuss. </p>
<p>    At least it was over now. Thinking back, Leo ran over what had been said once more.</p>
<p>
  <em>    "Raph... he doesn't do so hot when he's alone," April said, hunched over in a nervous position that just seemed so unlike her usual outgoing self. She sat next to her counterpart, who laid her hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "He doesn't think much, and most of his plans just involve smashing things. And he's really afraid of this specific creepy doll... scared to death of it. But more than anything else, he's really really scared something will happen to Leo, Mikey, and Donnie. He is super protective of his little brothers. You hurt them, you might as well have just signed your own death warrant."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>    "What do you mean he doesn't do so good alone?" Leo asked. April stroked two fingers on her chin, deep in thought.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em class="">    "He goes all savage and crazy. I haven't seen it happen, but Donnie told me plenty of stories. Acts like a wild animal or something, can't think straight. He's even attacked his brothers in this state 'cause he can't recognize them or something." April frowned, turning towards the Raphael of this world. "You don't do that?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>    "Uh, no," Raph replied, "definitely not. I prefer being alone."</em>
</p>
<p>    Looking back, Leo had found that idea a little funny. Their Raphael threatened and ran off on his own far too often to have symptoms like that, but it was no secret Raph didn't like being alone—even if he thought it was hidden from everyone else. Sure, he left to cool down sometimes, but that was the only time Raphael could be found without someone else. It was why he was always found sitting nearby when Leo was watching Space Heroes, or just so happened to be reading comics in the kitchen while Mikey cooked. Even alone in his room, he would always talk to Spike—since he had turned into Slash, Raphael barely spent anytime alone in his room anymore. He liked being around those he cared about—they all just pretended they didn't know this little fact for his own sake.</p>
<p>    So no, Raphael did not turn "savage" when alone, but he definitely shared the same hatred of it... even if he would never admit it.</p>
<p>
  <em>    Moving on from Raph, Leo pushed the conversation onwards. "Alright, Raphael doesn't do good alone or when his brothers are threatened or when there's a creepy doll involved, got it. What about Mikey?"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>    "Mikey's tough, but he's still pretty young," April said, "He gets scared easier than his brothers. If he's too scared, he doesn't think clearly and he will scream until your ears bleed. He's not too good in water, compared to his brothers, and he's really emotional... He's probably the quickest to anger or sadness or fear. Maybe you could use that somehow."</em>
</p>
<p>    While April had continued to answer any questions Leo had from that point on, she trailed off and started to zone out, clearly avoiding discussing the topic at hand anymore than she had to. It wasn't hard to see why. Leo had caught her frequent glances towards Donnie's lab, worried and lost in thought, aching to say something. She was thinking about Donnie. Her Donnie, most likely, worrying herself to death over him.</p>
<p>    Leo couldn't blame her. He was just as worried about his own brother.</p>
<p>    That brought them to where they were now, waiting in the pit, staring more or less at nothing. Leo held a comic in his hand that he wasn't even pretending to pay attention to.</p>
<p>    Another hour had passed. It had been 18 hours since the Incident. Donatello was still in his lab.</p>
<p>    "So, uh," Mikey's voice was low and cautious, hesitantly looking to everyone before he spoke, "Are we ever gonna get him out of that lab?"</p>
<p>    "Well," New April reasoned, frowning deeply, "We can't just leave him in there forever. We're gonna have to get him out eventually."</p>
<p>    Leo shrugged, "Even if we don't, he'll need to come out for water or food eventually. Maybe we could get through to him then?"</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, genius plan Leo," Raph rolled his eyes, sarcasm rolling off his tongue, "Except we all know that's not gonna happen for a while. Donnie basically lives in there."</p>
<p class="">    They all knew Raphael was right; Donnie would stay in his lab for hours and even days without leaving for food when he really got absorbed in an argument if no one physically dragged him out. And that was when he was in a relatively good mood... But this?</p>
<p class="">    Raph wouldn't put it past him to try and stay in there for three days or more.</p>
<p class="">    "Well we gotta think of something," April stressed, hitting the palm of her hand with her fist. Her counterpart stood besides her, nodding her head in agreement and pushing her glasses up her nose. "It isn't healthy for him to stay in there like that! You guys know how important his work is to him—losing it all was probably borderline traumatic for him."</p>
<p class="">    "Well if anyone has any ideas to get him out here, I'm all ears." Raph looked around at the room, "Anyone got anything?"</p>
<p class="">    No one answered. No one did.</p>
<p>    "Yeah," Raph sighed, "That's what I thought."</p>
<p>    "Maybe we could-"</p>
<p>    A loud crash stopped Leo in the middle of his words, and everyone in the group spun around, Raphael's sais in his hands within seconds. A tall and skinny teenage boy stood in front of the lair, just having knocked over half a dozen pizza boxes and dropping his bags of hockey-vigilante equipment onto the concrete floor without a care. His face was covered in paint (no doubt disguising a parade of bruises), and yet he was still sporting a very obvious black eye. With hair was dripping with sweat and falling into his face, he, to be frank, was a complete <em>disaster</em>. But what stood out the most was his upper right arm.</p>
<p>    A huge gash was ripped in the fabric of his hoodie, an obvious burn covering the skin beneath, seared deeply into the muscle. He didn't speak; he only panted, desperately trying to catch his breath.</p>
<p>    "Casey?" Raph was the first to speak, "What the hell happened to your arm?"</p>
<p>    Casey frowned, looking down at the aforementioned limb, and blinked.</p>
<p>    "Oh," He muttered, almost to himself, "Yeah. Forgot about that."</p>
<p>    "Aren't you supposed to be in Pennsylvania?" April was by in side in an instant, concern and frustration painted on her face, "I thought you weren't coming back until the weekend? What even happened? Why are you here?"</p>
<p>    "Came back early," He said, following April as she dragged him further into the room, "I went to find you guys on patrol—was gonna surprise you all."</p>
<p>    He collapsed on the ledge of the pit, April sitting besides him and holding his injured arm carefully. The group looked at each other in confusion when Casey neglected to say anything else, evidently completely forgetting he had been in the process of explaining how he got so beat up and burned. He stared off into space. </p>
<p>    "And?" Leo prompted. Casey frowned, thinking, and then his face started to grow angry. His whole demeanor changed as he stood to his full height, and pointed accusingly at Michelangelo.</p>
<p>    "But I found some Kraang doin' something—I don't know what, but it was probably evil—and so I went an' attacked 'em. And then some turtle stealing Mikey's look came out of nowhere and tried to kill me! And then another turtle who I thought was Slash but turned out to be another dude just stealing Raph's look too appeared and tried to murder me too, even though I never did nothing to either of them!"</p>
<p>    "Wait, you went after the Kraang by yourself?" Everyone looked behind them, seeing that Donnie had finally emerged from his lab. Everyone in the group looked shocked, except for Casey, who had no idea why that was such a strange thing to see. Donnie still seemed pretty stressed, but at least plenty more put together than he had been a few hours before. The deep circles under his eyes peeking out from his mask were the only exception. His eyes locked on the burn on Casey's arm, and he went into doctor mode, running over to him and grabbing his arm to look at it.</p>
<p>    Leo and Raph shared a glance at each other. Looks like for now, Donnie was going to ignore the previous situation. They'd have to talk to him about it later on.</p>
<p>    Casey shrugged, immediately regretting it and wincing as he moved his burned arm awkwardly. He still tried to tug it away.</p>
<p>    "Well, yeah. They're losers and easy to beat—or they were until they got bodyguards!" He defended. "Also, dude, I'm fine. Let go of my arm."</p>
<p>    "Casey, this is a really bad burn."</p>
<p>    "Aren't you more worried about the two new identity-stealing turtles I just mentioned?! Isn't that more important? You guys don't look surprised at all!" Casey froze, then glared at each of the turtles one by one with eyes narrowed in suspicion.</p>
<p>    "Hey, hold on a second. You guys aren't surprised. You know what's going on, don't you?!" Their silence was his answer. "You jerks! You know, and you didn't tell me?! I want in! Why didn't you tell me?!"</p>
<p>    "We thought you were going to be gone for a few more days," April said, standing besides Donnie as he inspected Casey's wound, "We didn't want you to get worried a state away and try and rush back."</p>
<p>    "Yeah, dude!" Mikey piped up, "If we knew you were coming back early, we would've let you know!"</p>
<p>    Casey glared anyways, evidently not finding that answer good enough. "So what?! If you guys were on a trip you'd still want me to tell you if there was a crazy evil identity-stealing Casey Jones running around, don't try and tell me otherwise!! I would've told you, you assholes!"</p>
<p>    "Well next time we fight evil clones of ourselves we'll be sure to let you know," Raph replied.</p>
<p>    Casey glared at him, and it was only then that he noticed there was an extra person in the group, a girl around their age he didn't recognize. His eyes locked on her.</p>
<p>    "Also, who is that?"</p>
<p>    The group exchanged looks, and Leo cautiously stepped forwards.</p>
<p>    "Well, Casey," Leo began, "It turns out that-"</p>
<p>    "You're right, Case, we do have a lot to catch you up on," Raphael interrupted, grinning suddenly. He walked over to his best friend, shoving Donnie aside to set a hand on his shoulder, before he nodded in New April's direction. She waved back awkwardly, and Raphael continued. The smirk never left his face.</p>
<p>    "But since you've already met evil Mikey and me, I think we can skip that part. So let's begin by introducing you to the no longer one and only April O'Neil."</p>
<p>    Casey blinked. He looked back and forth between April, Raph, and the girl he was gesturing towards, before he turned back to Raph again.</p>
<p>    "<em>What</em>?"</p>
<p>    "Can we have this conversation back in my lab?" Donnie asked tiredly, "Unless you wanna lose use of your arm you need to let me treat this. Your usual ibuprofen and bandaids aren't going to work with this one."</p>
<p>    "Why not?!" Casey demanded. Donnie just gave him the most exhausted and done look he could muster up, and Casey stuck his tongue out at him in response. </p>
<p>    "Yeah," Leo sighed, rubbing his forehead, "We can continue this in your lab."</p>
<p>    And so, they did.</p>
<p>    Catching up Casey on everything that he had missed over the past few days turned out to be quite the task, with a lot more happening than any of them had realized before they got the chance to sit down and talk it all out. But now that it was out there? The realization of just how crazy the situation was dawned on all of them. They were exhausted already.</p>
<p>    Casey however, was estatic.</p>
<p>    "You're fighting yourselves from another dimension?!" He shouted, throwing up the arm that Donnie currently wasn't wrapping up, "Wicked!"</p>
<p>    "Dude," Raph said, "They're trying to kill us. I don't know how to describe this, but it is definitely not that."</p>
<p>    "Yeah," Mikey piped up, nodding in agreement, "The other Donnie just deleted everything on Donnie's computer too."</p>
<p>    Donnie froze for a split second, but then continued wrapped up Casey's arm. He said nothing, and didn't acknowledge what Mikey said.</p>
<p>    "Speaking of that..." Their April said softly, sitting next to Casey, "How are you, Donnie? Did you get anything back?"</p>
<p>    Donnie hesitated. He took a moment to tie off the bandages and set the remainder down, ignoring the concerned looks on both April and Casey's faces. "I... not on the computer, no. Everything really is gone and I had to destroy a few other pieces of tech too..."</p>
<p>    The other April frowned, keeping a fair distance between herself and the trio, but still felt she should speak up. "Donnie, I'm really sorry-"</p>
<p>    "It's not your fault," Donnie shook his head, "And it's alright. It took a while, but I reconnected to most of my sensors and got a lot of my programs back. I was really panicking over all the formulas and designs I had there, like the retromutagen formula—I wasn't sure I could recreate all of that from scratch quickly, but..."</p>
<p>    He pointed over to his desk, which was now filled with junk. Not the usual kind of metal and technological junk Donnie would scavenge, but actual trash. Dirty napkins, old cardboard boxes, and newspapers from weeks ago. They were all dirty and torn, and didn't seem to have anything to do with each other... except for one similarity. All of them were covered from top to bottom in scrawls and scribbles.</p>
<p>    Donnie chuckled, "Turns out my habit of writing down ideas and concept designs on anything around me has its uses. I had to dig in my trash for hours but... I managed to get back a lot of my biggest works. I have the second design of my retromutagen formula back too. I redid it three times since that, but it's a lot better to start with than nothing."</p>
<p>    "Nice job, D," Leo grinned, walking over and patting his little brother on the back, "Good work. You sure you're gonna be okay?"</p>
<p>    Donnie nodded, "Yeah... still pretty frustrated, and I'm still going to strangle my other self the second I get my hands on him but... yeah, I'll be okay." He paused, turning around suddenly to April, regret filling his features as he remembered how he had yelled at her hours before. "And April I'm so so sorry-"</p>
<p>    "I told you Donnie, it's okay," She smiled, "I forgive you."</p>
<p>    Donnie grinned.</p>
<p>    "Okay, not to break up the forgiveness party or whatever," Casey said, standing up. "But I have an extremely important question now."</p>
<p>    "Yeah?" Raph asked. Casey frowned.</p>
<p>    "Where's MY other self?!" He demanded, then pointed towards the other April, "Tell me about him! Is he as awesome as I am?!"</p>
<p>    "Uh," April hesitated, looking at Casey, who was practically radiating with excitement. She almost felt guilty about not knowing who he was. She searched her mind and memories, thinking back to school and her classmates, trying to find someone... but came up blank.</p>
<p>    "I don't actually know? A Casey Jones in my world?" She admitted, voice raising at the end as though it were a question. Casey visibly deflated, and she hurried on. "That doesn't mean he doesn't exist though! I mean, you and April met the turtles a lot later than I did in my world, maybe we just don't meet him for a while? I'm sure he'll show up eventually."</p>
<p>    "This whole thing just got a lot less awesome," Casey pouted. Donnie rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to scoff at the other teen, but then paused, gaze finding its way back down to the wound on his arm.</p>
<p>    "Wait," He said, "I thought you said you were fighting other Mikey and Raph. How did you get burned so badly?"</p>
<p>    "Other Mikey burned me!"</p>
<p>    April blinked, glasses not masking any confusion. "How? His mystic weapon doesn't work here, how's he using fire?"</p>
<p>    "Other Mikey had some freaky pink glowing Kraang-lookin' chucks, dude," Casey shrugged. "I don't know. The other Raph had something similar too, but I ran outta there before I got see him use them... which sucks! I bet whatever they were, they were totally metal!"</p>
<p>    "So you're telling me the Kraang made them replacement magic weapons with their tech?!" Raphael demanded, slamming a fist down on the desk in front of him. Donnie glared as his items shifted, but thankfully nothing fell to the ground. He didn't bother to scold him, and neither did Leo.</p>
<p>    "Well, I mean..." Their April spoke softly, looking towards Donnie, who stared right back. "It might not have been the Kraang who made them. Not directly, anyways."</p>
<p>    New Aprils eyes widened. "Donnie."</p>
<p>    It was silent for several long seconds, but the silence was quickly shattered. Raphael threw his arms up in frustration.</p>
<p>    "Great! Not only do we have to deal with mindless, moral-less, Kraang-controlled versions of ourselves, but they also have power ups?! I thought those mystic weapons you keep telling us about not working here was our lucky break! Now other Mikey has fire powers?!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, that is NOT fair!" Mikey exclaimed, "Why does HE get fire and not me? Totally unfair."</p>
<p>    Raphael rolled his eyes, "Yeah, no. That's the one thing I'm not complaining about."</p>
<p class="">    "Bro, come on! It's totally unfair!" Mikey turned to Leo and put his hands together in a desperate plea, "Can I get fire-chucks too?! If he can have them, I want some too! Pleaaseee Leo?"</p>
<p>    "You are absolutely not going anywhere near fire," Leo rolled his eyes. Mikey turned to Donnie in a last ditch effort to save his case, but his betraying older brother just shook his head. </p>
<p>    "Sorry Mikey, but I'm with Leo and Raph on this one."</p>
<p>    "I still think I deserve fire too," Mikey pouted, "Come on! Fight fire with fire, right?"</p>
<p>    Casey grinned, "I gotta agree with Mikey. That'd be dope!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah!! See, even Casey says-"</p>
<p>    "Mikey, we are not getting you any weapons involving any kinds of flames." Leo snapped, and Mikey groaned loudly, but didn't argue. Leo sighed. "And you're not getting any for yourself either, okay? No sneaking off to find a flamethrower."</p>
<p>    "No fair!"</p>
<p>    The argument stopped abruptly when a loud ringing came from Donnie's computer. Probably for the best... as much as Mikey would claim otherwise. Whatever came from Donnie's computer was probably more important. The group turned to him, and Donnie ran over to the old device. He typed quickly, and gasped.</p>
<p>    "Donnie?" Mikey asked. Donnie wasted no time as an explanation tumbled out of his mouth.</p>
<p>    "The Kraang are at the docks, I set up a system to monitor that area recently," Donnie explained quickly. He stood up and grabbed his bo, "They're unloading something, and from the energy readings the area is giving off, whatever it is probably isn't pretty."</p>
<p>    "Do you think Donnie, Mikey, and Raph are there?" New April asked, as the group around her stood. She rose to her feet as well. "Is there even a chance they're there?"</p>
<p>    "I don't know about Donnie, but the Kraang have been using Mikey and Raph as bodyguards up until now, so it makes sense that they'd be there too," Leo said, "But they aren't going to stay there for long. We need to go, now."</p>
<p>    "You think this battle will turn out any different?" April asked suddenly, and Leo nodded, confident.</p>
<p>    "It has to. Just remember everything the new April went over," He said, nodding towards said April, "Keep their weaknesses in mind. Donnie said the devices let them keep their personalities, so they should work. Work on disarming more than just winning the battle... and we'll be okay. We can get them back."</p>
<p>   "Should Casey really be going out to fight with his arm like that though?" Donnie asked. Casey rolled his eyes, elbowing Donnie with his good arm harshly.</p>
<p>   "Casey Jones never backs down from a fight!"</p>
<p>   "Yeah, well he can still get knocked down from one-"</p>
<p>   "Would you two cut it out?" April groaned, "Just go easy and it'll be fine. I really doubt you're gonna get him to stay home."</p>
<p>    Donnie sighed, and joined his brothers. The turtles and their April were out the door in an instant, with Casey following close behind. The other April, however, hesitated. She had caught sight of something on the vigilante's back, among his various weapons and equipment. Most were sports related—hockey sticks and the like. Most she didn't care to figure out their names. However, her eyes locked sight on one specific wooden tool...</p>
<p>    "Casey!" He stopped and turned around, raising one brow in question at the new April. She grinned hopefully. "You wouldn't by chance mind if I borrowed that," She pointed, "Would you?"</p>
<p>    "Huh?" Casey looked confused for half a second, before his eyes lit up in recognition. He shrugged, "Sure, other Red. Knock yourself out."</p>
<p>    April grinned as he tossed the weapon to her, and raced out the door. This weapon wasn't exactly like her own, but considering hers was lost somewhere in the halls of a Kraang base, this was as good as she'd get to a replacement. And a good substitute it was! Though nothing could ever replace her baby, this one was strong and sturdy and had just the right weight to it. She gave the bat an experimental swing, smiling and holding it over her shoulder.</p>
<p>    April O'Neil was back. </p>
<p>    Now, it was time to get her boys back too.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next week is a big battle- been waiting for this one for a while. Got some art for it too I'm excited to show you guys~</p>
<p>As always, comments and kudos are appreciated. Thanks for reading guys, love you all! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Waves and the Mind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Rise April and her new team of the 2012 gang meet with their opponents at the docks for a battle.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys!! This chapter is pretty major, and I did my best on it so... I'm kinda nervous, there's a lot going on here. Hopefully you guys like it!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>   </p><hr/><p>    The docks were quiet.</p><p>    It was strange; when Donnie had described the outrageous energy readings he had gotten from the area earlier, the group had expected to see hundreds of Kraang with a weapon powerful enough to wipe out the entire state. But when they—Casey, the two Aprils, and the turtles— had gotten there, they didn't see much of anything at all. Just quiet docks with a few darkened boats, a flickering lightbulb here and there... Not a Kraang or evil turtle in sight.<span class="u"></span></p><p>    "You sure this is the place, Donnie?" Leo asked, standing on the ledge of the garage they were on top of. Donnie stood next to him, frowning as he looked out into the distance, and nodded. </p><p>    "Yeah, it's definitely coming from here." He looked down to his small device, its light blinking rapidly. "Like, exactly here, actually. We're standing on top of it."</p><p>    "So it's inside?" Mikey asked, peeking over the edge. "Huh, that's weird."</p><p>    "Maybe they unloaded whatever was producing the energy out before we got here," New April suggested. "So... what's the plan? Jump in there and start fighting?"</p><p>    "We don't even know if it's just Kraang inside or other Mikey and Raph too," Leo said, turning away from the edge and facing his team. "Or maybe it's other me or Donnie too, or maybe none of them are in there... we really don't have any way of knowing."</p><p>    "And?" Raph asked, prompting him to continue. Leo hesitated.</p><p>    On one hand, jumping in there without knowing what to expect would be a terrible idea. Quite literally anything could be waiting for them inside. A full team of powered up, evil versions of themselves could be standing in front of the window preparing to attack―Leo was fairly certain they'd be able to take one or two down now that they knew what they were working with, but all four would be a horrible nightmare. Or what if this was a trap? Or an ambush? While Leo trusted Donnie's word that he fixed his tech and locked his alternate self out of it permanently, he couldn't stop his over-analyzing brain from run over the possibilities in his head over and over. What if the tech to encourage them to go to the docks even though there were really no energy readings at all? What if the other Donnie had put a fake program on his laptop that set them up here?</p><p>    No. Leo shook his head slightly. Donatello—his brother—was smart and careful. He would have already ran over those possibilities himself. If Donnie said this was the place, this was the place. </p><p>    "I'll go in first through the window over there," Leo said, "Mikey and New April, I want you two behind me for backup. Casey and Raph, you two are going to go in through the exit on the far side of the warehouse. Our April and Donnie will be right behind you."</p><p>    Raphael nodded, and silently disappeared as he ran to the exit; Casey, April, and Donnie following close behind. Leo looked over at the two he chose as his backup. Mikey grinned, and April gave him a confident nod and smile. </p><p>    "Alright," He whispered, creeping towards the edge of rooftop. He took one more glance at his partners and grinned back. "Let's do this."</p><p>***</p><p>    April watched as Leo threw himself over the edge of the rooftop, keeping ahold of the roof with one hand as he began to unlock the window below. Then the hand holding him up disappeared as well, and a quiet scuffle of a noise told them that he had climbed through the window. Well, it looked like he was officially inside now. No sounds of fighting yet... April supposed that was a good thing.<br/><br/>    Should they be following him in now? Or were they supposed to wait until they heard something? April glanced over at Mikey, who was crouching at the edge and getting ready to follow his older brother in—but he didn't move quite yet. He knew this Leo better than April did, so she decided to trust his lead that they were evidently waiting for some kind of signal or something.</p><p>    She just hoped it would come soon.</p><p>    Like she always did when sitting around doing nothing, April slipped into her own tornado of a mind and got lost in her thoughts. Most of them involving the turtles of her own universe once again... She had left the lair so excited and ready to finally get back into battle, and finally have a chance to get Raph and Mikey back. But now that she was here... she wasn't sure she was ready to face them.</p><p>    And what if Leo and Donnie were here too? They genuinely had no idea where either of them were—Donnie could've hacked that computer from anywhere on Earth, and they hadn't heard a single thing from or about Leo's whereabouts yet—and she hadn't told this team about their weaknesses. Truth was, she hadn't wanted to think about that more than she had to. All April could do now was to hope it wouldn't come back to bite them all in the butt. Her hand tightened around the bat in her left hand until her knuckles paled. It was all she could do to keep herself from shaking.</p><p>    "Hey," She looked over to see Mikey had set a hand on her shoulder, a gentle smile on his face. </p><p>    "Hmm?"</p><p>    "We're gonna get your Mikey and Raph back, no sweat!" He promised, "We're good at what we do, those guys don't stand a chance! Trust us!"</p><p>    April chuckled, smiling sadly and placing her own hand on top of the one on her shoulder, "Thanks, Mikey..."</p><p>    He grinned back at her. April knew that this Michelangelo wasn't hers—it wasn't hard to miss. They really didn't look anything alike. Sure, they were both mutant turtles in orange masks, but their faces were different. Pale blue eyes met hers instead of the golden ones she was used to, orange spots absent from his arms and legs and skin itself a different shade of green. His shell lacked the designs she was used to seeing, and even the belts they wore to hold their weapons were different. </p><p>    But that smile. Blindingly bright and full of childish joy and positivity, so familiar and yet so foreign... it held the same light that her Mikey's did.</p><p>    She trusted her Mikey with her life. Maybe she could extend that same trust to this one too.</p><p>    A shout pulled April from her thoughts, and her eyes widened. Mikey jumped up.</p><p>    "We should get in there-"</p><p>    "I know that voice!" She exclaimed, already running over to the edge and placing both hands on the ledge. "That was Raph!"</p><p>    Without another word, she launched herself over the ledge, using the momentum to fling herself right into the window. She land on her feet, crouching low, and heard Mikey touch down right besides her. April blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness, and rose to her feet. </p><p>    And the scene slowly revealed itself to her.</p><p>    Raphael and Casey stood off to the side, weapons drawn and jaws clenched. Donatello lay on the ground on the far side of the warehouse. April could see her counterpart kneeling besides him with a worried look on her face, trying to help Donnie as he struggled to sit up. Guarding both of them, Leonardo stood protectively in front with both swords drawn, eyes gone pure white as he faced his opponents.</p><p>    Raphael and Michelangelo—<em>her turtles</em>—stood in the center of the warehouse, protecting the bots standing behind them. About a dozen Kraang droids were taking boxes and crates off of a pallet on the floor, and walking through a glowing pink portal behind them. Judging by both her Raphael and this universe's Donnie's positions, April could only guess that Donnie had been trying to inspect the boxes, only for her Raph to kick or punch him to send him flying across the room.</p><p>    "Oh, snap," Mikey muttered, standing behind her. "Guess we missed the start of the fight."</p><p>    April's heart pounded loudly in her chest as her eyes locked on the two mind controlled teens. All she wanted to do was run to them, learn that this was all some kind of joke or hallucination, and go back home... but she knew that couldn't happen. A battle was inevitable.</p><p>    "Hey, April!" Her Mikey shouted across the room, a devious glint in his eyes as he swung his new nunchucks around. They were silver with purple and pink wires running up and down them, matching the Kraang's tech aesthetic perfectly... Not a hint of his familiar orange he loved to be seen. "We got new toys, wanna see?"</p><p>    April did not want to see. But a grunt from Raph drew her attention over to him, and she could see that he also had gotten a new powered up piece of Kraang technology. His prized tonfas were gone, and in their place he wore a pair of silver gauntlets. Pink wires ran up and down them too, meeting with the glowing pink ovals on top of each knuckle, powered up and ready to do... something. April wasn't sure what their purpose was just quite yet, but she had a sickening feeling in her stomach that told her she would soon find out. </p><p>    "April~" Mikey called out to her again, voice taunting. "Do you?"</p><p>    She took a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath. <em>In, and out... In, and out...</em> Her heart stopped threatening to beat out of her chest. Just calm down, she told herself, and all will be okay. <em>Just breathe</em>.</p><p>    When she opened her eyes, they were narrowed in determination... and she was ready.</p><p>    "Sure, Mikey," She said, finally able to meet the two's eyes, cold as their hearts. "Show us what you got." </p><p>    The warehouse erupted into chaos.</p><p>    The battle split into three individual fights. Leo, Raph, and Casey ran towards the controlled Raphael. Delighted at the situation, Mikey swung his flaming nunchucks around as he launched himself into the action.  His universe's April and this world's Michelangelo braced themselves. The two groups each claimed a side of the room as they screamed and fought.</p><p>    Meanwhile, Donnie finally was able to rise to his feet, wincing in pain. April stared at him in concern. He took a look at the scene surrounding them... His brothers, the New April, and Casey seemed to have the other turtles covered for now. But still unattended were the boxes in the middle of the room that they were supposed to be guarding in the first place—it'd be worth a look to see what that was about. Not to mention the Kraang's portal was still open. More and more Kraangdroids were entering the battle by the second, and who knew who else would come through as backup? Donnie knew what he needed to focus on.</p><p>    "Look at that device," Donnie said, pointing to the small silver of gray and pink hovering just over top of the triangular portal, "That's what's making the portal—it's the same kind I have in my lab. If I handle the Kraang, can you grab it and smash it to pieces? It'll be easier than disabling it and will ensure they can't just turn it back on... They could make a new one from their side of things, but it'll take a bit longer without that device."</p><p>    "Sounds like a plan," April grinned, flashing him a thumbs up. Pushing the sounds of the fight from their mind, the two sprinted across to the center of the warehouse. Donnie immediately began taking down the droids, while April ran to the portal.</p><p>    Pulling out her tessen, April narrowed her eyes and locked her sight on her target. The portal was a lot taller up close, but she wasn't worried about it. She didn't need to reach it to pull it down safely—all that mattered was it was destroyed.</p><p>    She readied herself, aimed, and swung her arm out. The tessen sliced through the middle and the portal was down... No more Kraang would get to join this battle, not through there.</p><p>    "Watch out!" April spun around just in time to duck as a blast from the Kraang's lasers whipped past her. She grimaced, and ran to join Donnie in taking out the last few Kraang bots. Most had been destroyed while she was focused on the portal, but soon, the last dozen or so were down as well. Donnie grinned, panting ever so slightly and running over to the pile of crates.</p><p>    "Nice job," He told her, using the blade from his staff to open up one of the crates. "Now to see what was giving off all that energy..."</p><p>    April stood behind him, standing guard, while Donnie reached inside. Peeking over his shoulder, she struggled to see what was inside, but only managed to catch Donnie as he gasped in horror. Before April was able to ask why, however, a scream interrupted them, followed by a loud crack and crash.</p><p>    They spun around just in time to see their Raphael get pushed to the side by his counterpart, who then turned to Leo and punched him, hard, right in the plastron. It was then that they finally saw what the new Kraang weapons he wore could do.</p><p>    As he swung his arm forwards toward the smaller turtle, the pink spots on the gauntlet began to glow brighter and brighter. A transparent blast of pink shot out from them and covered his whole arm in a protective, glowing and impervious bubble―a<em> force field</em>. It doubled his power and strength, and Leo flew through the air, right through the thin and decaying wooden walls of the warehouse. Wood splinters scattered everywhere and the remaining walls shook. Landing on the concrete outside, Leo coughed and groaned, but managed to stay conscious. Casey yelled, and both Raphael's ran after Leo—albeit for two very, very different reasons.</p><p>    Donnie and April shared a look at each other, and then ran to join the battle outside.</p><p>    Leo rolled out of the way just as the other Raph swung his force field covered fists down at him again, jumping to his feet and pulling out his one remaining sword—he must have lost his first in the earlier battle. Raphael and Casey managed to catch Raph off guard while he recovered from his missed punch, landing two simultaneous kicks to his chest hard enough to knock him over. </p><p>    The controlled Raphael growled, lip twitching up in a snarl. His counterpart grinned.</p><p>    "What?" The smaller Raphael asked, spinning his sai around in one hand, "That all you got?"</p><p>    "Oh, Raph's got more than you've seen yet," Came his third-person reply, and Raphael's eyes widened as he watched his opposition's gauntlets begin to glow again. He silently regretted his taunting.</p><p>    Raphael dodged as the force field nearly hit him. His eyes locked on the gloves. The Kraang technology was strong, the designs creative, much more innovative than any kind of Kraang weapon he'd seen before—usually, they stuck to blasters and powerful robot-suits to wear, not force field gloves and flaming nunchucks. Raphael guessed that April was correct; their Donnie must be designing these.</p><p>    "Goongala!!" Casey launched his attack next. The controlled Raph threw his arm up to his face, the metal blocking the explosive hockey pucks being thrown at him. Casey ran at him and raised his hockey stick above his head to swing at the turtle, but Raph caught it easily. He squeezed his fist, and the wood cracked in half. Casey gasped.</p><p>    "Dude, not cool!" He exclaimed, only to get thrown back across the docks. He caught onto one of the wooden pillars before he could slide into the water, and glared. "Not cool at all!"</p><p>    The other Raph just laughed. He took a step towards Casey, and then another, and Casey wasn't able to get out of the way fast enough. He soon found himself being lifted up by the collar of his shirt, dangling over the edge of the docks. Holding onto his arm for dear life, Casey started shouting.</p><p>    "Now that's really really <em>really</em> not cool, stop it! Put me down!" </p><p>    "Nah, I don't think I-"</p><p>    "Put him down!" The controlled Raph spun around just in time to dodge a swing from Donnie's staff as he flew towards him. Casey slipped from his grasp, screaming as he nearly fell right into the water, but the more familiar Raphael caught him by the arm just before he plunged in.</p><p>    "Gotcha," Raph muttered, pulling him up. Casey grinned.</p><p>    Thrown off by Donnie's attack, the controlled Raphael didn't notice April. She ran towards him and he was unable to dodge her tessen in time, and was rewarded with a new deep gash on his cheek, slicing through the fabric of his mask as well. April held her weapon proudly, smirking victoriously.</p><p>    It was only then that Raph realized he was surrounded. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Casey, and April stood on each side of him; bruised and battered, but with spirits alive and ready to fight. They gripped harshly on their respective weapons. </p><p>    He glanced around, desperately trying to formulate a plan, when his sights landed on the other fight across the docks, on the rooftop of the warehouse they had started in.</p><p>    His younger brother was doing significantly better in his battle—probably due to having only two opponents instead of five. He dodged and jumped and laughed as he swung his nunchucks around rapidly, blocking his counterpart's swings and kicking April's bat away. Judging by the offended look on the other Mikey's face, the controlled Michelangelo must be mocking them. The edges of April's jackets were slightly charred, and a new burn had appeared on her cheek—looks like taunting wasn't all he had done to them.</p><p>    He forced them from his thoughts, and turned back to his own situation.</p><p class="">    "You're done for, Raphael," Leonardo hissed out, pointing one sword towards him as he took a step forward. "We have you surrounded. Drop the gauntlets and surrender."</p><p class="">    "Or don't." Raph grinned, watching his counterpart, who was glaring daggers right back at him. "I wouldn't mind another round."</p><p class="">    "Raph!" The controlled Raphael squinted as he looked off to the side, where his little brother had jumped off the roof in favor of moving their battle to the ground. The controlled Mikey shouted desperately, pointing to Donnie. "Take him out!"</p><p class="">    A look of confusion crossed his face, but his eyes lit up in recognition as Mikey swung his chain towards the group. Donatello gasped as the flaming chain burned his lower legs, tripping him. He grimaced as he fell to the concrete.</p><p class="">    He didn't have enough time to move out of the way. Donnie stared up in frozen shock as the other Raphael jumped up, the force field coating his arm once again, fist aimed directly for his head. Donnie swung his arms up to cover his face and braced for impact. </p><p class="">    "Not this time!" Raphael jumped in front of his younger brother, pulling out a smoke bomb from his belt and hurling it towards his alternate self, while April ran and shoved Donnie out of the way. Raph coughed and waved his hands around his face as he landed where Donnie was just moments before, blinking and gasping and trying to get his vision back. </p><p class="">    A fierce pain erupted through his body as Leo and Raphael swung a kick at his head at the exact same time. Blinded and dizzy, he desperately tried to regain his senses. He kept his force field up as a protection and swung wildly and without aim—Where were they? Where was everything? Where were the docks? All he could see was purple smoke.</p><p class="">    "Take this!" That was the last thing Raph heard before a shock rushed through him. Casey jammed his hand towards Raph's chest, electricity shooting out and finally, finally, landing the last blow they needed to win. </p><p class="">    The new Raphael fell to his knees, and passed out.</p><p class="">    They won the first part of this battle.</p><p class="">    "Nice going, Jones!" Raph exclaimed, staring down at his unconscious self. He lifted a hand towards his friend, who high fived him right back. April laughed and congratulated them too.</p><p class="">    But their victory didn't last long. Mikey was still up and swinging, and now that he saw his brother had been taken down... <em>he was pissed.</em></p><p class="">    "No!" The other Mikey shouted. Enraged, he ran towards them, not caring what he left behind in his wake.</p><p class="">    That carelessness led to flames.</p><p class="">    Fire caught from his chucks onto one of the other warehouses, spreading to a few other crates and growing in intensity. Mikey didn't seem to care.</p><p class="">    "Dude, stop it!" Michelangelo shouted, running after his younger self with the other April right behind him, "You're gonna light the whole docks on fire!"</p><p class="">    Donatello's eyes widened. "Be careful!" He exclaimed, turning to Leo, "That shipment the Kraang were getting and loading into the portal? Those were all different kinds of explosives!"</p><p class="">    "Explosives?!"</p><p class="">    Donnie nodded, "Keep his fire away from that warehouse!"</p><p class="">    Mikey, hand still gripping his chucks harshly, looked back at the flaming mess he had created. Donnie's words hadn't been missed, and the purple turtle instantly realized his mistake.</p><p class="">    The youngest turtle's eyes were set on the warehouse. He grinned.</p><p class="">    "Wait, Mikey, don't!" The New April shouted, watching in horror as he took off towards it. She ran after him, reaching out for his arm and only just barely missing. Her counterpart watched with wide eyes.</p><p class="">    "Your brother is knocked out, Mikey!" She called, pointing towards where the other Raphael laid, unconscious. "You set off an explosion, that's gonna hurt or even kill him!"</p><p class="">    Mikey didn't react.</p><p class="">    He didn't care.</p><p class="">    Time seemed to slow down as he kept running, feet pounding against the docks one by one, inching closer and closer to the warehouse. The team tried to stop him, but he dodged and flipped with ease. None of them stood at chance at catching him—he was fast, faster than anyone there. </p><p class="">    Well, almost anyone.</p><p class="">    Michelangelo stood closest to the warehouse, frozen and rooted to the spot. He couldn't take his eyes off the horrifying scene, and his mind raced a mile a minute. They were winning, hadn't they been? They got Raphael down... why was the other Mikey so much harder to beat? What were they missing? How could they get him?</p><p class="">    Mikey's mind suddenly latched onto one memory. </p><p class="">
  <em>    "He's not too good in water, compared to his brothers..."</em>
</p><p class="">    Mikey's eyes locked on the fire, and then on the edge of the docks behind them. The wind had picked up, the waves growing in size with each passing minute. A steady <em>thump</em> could be felt against the docks each time they hit the wooden pillars holding them up... and Mikey knew what he had to do.</p><p class="">    He put away his own weapons, took a deep breath, and ran.</p><p class="">    "Booyakasha!!" The shout echoed through the docks, the only warning the other Mikey received before Michelangelo plowed directly into him. He wrapped his arms around his counterpart tightly, keeping him from escaping despite his cries of anguish and flailing arms. He refused to let go.</p><p class="">    The two plummeted into the dark waters below.</p><p class="">    And in that moment, time stopped moving. Leonardo froze. His group rushed over to the edge, everyone's eyes locked on the waves before. No one dared to speak. The silence was as fragile as was the frozen scene at hand. Time had stopped, and if they spoke, they would be forced to confront the question at hand.</p><p class="">    Had that just happened?</p><p class="">    Raphael shoved past his brothers and teammates, landing on his knees as he looked over the edge at where his baby brother had just tackled his counterpart under. The water was dark already, and the moon provided very little light to see from; it was impossible to see what was going on beneath the waves without diving in himself. Which Raphael absolutely planned to do.</p><p class="">    A hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked up to see the other April looking down on him. Her cheek was burned and the left lens of her glasses cracked, her dark skin marred with bruises and coated in sweat and blood. Raph could feel the slight tremble in her hand from where it sat on his arm. Yet, when she spoke, her tone was unwavering.</p><p class="">    "He knew what he was doing," She said softly, gaze turning to watch the waves as well. "Trust him."</p><p class="">    And so, they waited.</p><p class="">    And waited.<br/><br/>    And waited...</p><p class="">    Clouds roamed overhead, and a slight drizzle began to rain down. Not enough to put out the flames raging behind them, but at least it would contain them. Not that any of them cared about the fire right now. Their minds were focused only on the Michelangelos' war beneath the waves.</p><p class="">    Ten seconds turned to twenty, which turned to a minute, which turned to two. They were all aware that turtles, even non-aquatic ones, could hold their breath for quite some time—a trait not lost in their mutation—but that did little to ease any of their anxieties. Drowning was the least of their worries. The controlled Mikey wasn't himself; he was out for blood. What if their Michelangelo was getting strangled to death down there? What if he couldn't beat him? What if he was trapped down there, his muted cries for help going unheard?  </p><p class="">    By the third minute, trust didn't matter anymore. They were going to go after their brother. Leo approached the edge of the docks-</p><p class="">    And that was when a head broke through the water with a loud gasp. The turtle paddled with one arm to keep himself afloat, his other arm holding another orange masked turtle, chained up and unconscious. The awake one had a proud grin on his face, his eyes alight with excitement and exhaustion.</p><p class="">    Their Michelangelo had won.</p><p class="">    "Hey bros," He called, cheekily smiling still. He nodded towards his counterpart, "Wanna give me a hand? He's heavier than he looks!"</p><p class="">    "You did it Mikey!" Raph shouted, while Leo jumped into the water to help his youngest brother lift the other up towards where New April and Raph reached for him. Donnie then helped the two of them back onto the docks as well. Mikey beamed, still panting slightly and trying to catch his breath. He decided then and there that all fights were much easier when he could breathe properly.</p><p class="">    New April pulled her Mikey close to her chest, watching as his chest rose and fell with each breath. He was okay, and most importantly, he was peaceful. Fortunately for all of them, it appeared as though the mind control device wasn't going to force him to wake up... They should have time to get him back to the lair to take it out.</p><p class="">    "We did it!" Casey whooped, throwing up an arm in celebration before pulling both April and Donnie into a celebratory hug. "Those punks didn't stand a chance with Casey Jones on the team!"</p><p class="">    "Oh yeah," Donnie rolled his eyes, shoving his arm away, "It was definitely all you. None of us helped at all."</p><p class="">    Casey grinned, "Glad you see it that way too!" April laughed. Raphael had thrown an arm around his brother affectionately, congratulating him on taking down his counterpart while the other April kept a tight hold on said counterpart, her gaze locked protectively on the other Raphael across the docks. </p><p class="">    Standing back from the group, Leo watched as the tension rolled off of his team's shoulders. They were celebrating their victory, and there was nothing more he wanted to do than join in. </p><p class="">    But something in his gut told him this celebration was too early.</p><p class="">    Leo's head whipped towards the forgotten warehouse just in time to see a flash of pink light coming from inside. A new, triangular portal had opened up inside, and Kraang droids began walking through. </p><p class="">    Reinforcements had finally arrived.</p><p class="">    "Guys-" </p><p class="">    "They got a new portal open!" April exclaimed, while Donnie's eyes grew twice their size.</p><p class="">    He grabbed ahold of his staff and held it tightly. "They're gonna get their shipment back too!" He exclaimed, turning to his oldest brother, "Leo, I don't know why the Kraang want all those chemicals and explosives, but we can't let them have them! Who knows what their plan is, it can't be good, you know that!"</p><p class="">    Leo watched in horror as the Kraang droids kept coming. The number had to be at least 50 now, maybe even more. <em>And they were still coming through</em>. In the distance, he could hear approaching sirens—how could he have forgotten about that? There was fire, of course humans would be coming!—and he needed to do something, <em>fast</em>.</p><p class="">    He looked back at his team. Donnie's and Raph's skin were covered in bruises, dried blood forming over a few scrapes and cuts. Both April's were nearly just as battered, their universe's being out of breath with a bloody nose while her counterpart was sporting a bad burn on her face that would surely scar. Casey looked relatively okay—but half of his weapons were destroyed or missing. And Mikey... he was utterly exhausted. None of the turtles could shiver, but he was rubbing his arms with a dazed look in his eyes; the cold was getting to him.</p><p class="">    They were in no position to keep fighting.</p><p class="">    "Retreat!" He called, looking back at his team. Raph ran over to the other April and quickly grabbed the unconscious alternate Mikey, throwing him over his shoulders. New April stared at Leo in shock.</p><p class="">    "Retreat?" She demanded, "But Raph- we have to get him! He's knocked out, we gotta get him back too Leo!"</p><p class="">    Leo looked back at aforementioned turtle. He still lay on the wooden docks, eyes shut tightly and breathing ragged. On one hand, this would be their best shot at getting him back to normal; he was knocked out cold. An hour minimum would have to pass before he would wake up... it may very well be now or never. But on the other hand...</p><p class="">    About three dozen Kraang stood in between him and their team, and the sirens were growing louder.</p><p class="">    "Look," Leo spoke rapidly, "We have Mikey. Unless you have a plan on how to lift a, what, 300 pound turtle and get him out of here with all those Kraang shooting at us all within the next thirty seconds before the humans get here, then you be my guest. But for now we're gonna have to leave him."</p><p class="">    April opened her mouth to reply, but then promptly shut it. She knew he was right... but that didn't mean she had to like it.</p><p class="">    Leo jumped out of the way as a blast was fired at him; the Kraang were beginning to attack. April shook her head and desperately tried to force her words out.</p><p class="">    "We can't just... leave him here. If this whole situation were reversed, he'd never leave us behind!"</p><p class="">    "Yeah, well," Raphael spoke up, holding onto the other Mikey by an arm and a leg over his shoulders, "As the only Raphael currently here, I say if I were in that position, I'd want you all to grab Mikey, get outta here, and come back for me later."</p><p class="">    Donnie nodded in agreement, "April, I hate to say it but... they're right. If we don't leave right now, we're toast, and we're not going to be able to save anybody. We got Mikey, we need to go."</p><p class="">    "Y-yeah," Michelangelo piped up, still rubbing at his arms and doing very little to hide how cold he was now, "Let's just... come b-back later, after we chill out and g-get some pizza."</p><p class="">    April spared one last glance to Raph, still laying motionless on the docks behind them. </p><p class="">    She didn't object any further. And when her counterpart grabbed her wrist and pulled her along, she ran right behind her.</p><p class="">    They couldn't call this mission a complete success. They had failed in stopping the Kraang from getting their shipment, and had no idea what the vast amount of explosives were for. Whatever plan that was was still going strong for the aliens. Worse than that, they hadn't saved Raphael. That stupid device was still stuck in his neck, and he was still under Kraang control for who knew how much longer, and they still hadn't a clue where Leo or Donnie could be. They still didn't even know where to start.</p><p class="">    But Mikey was coming home with them now. In only a few short hours, he would be free of the Kraang's control. April had to focus on that. They saved Michelangelo.</p><p class="">    One turtle at a time, she supposed. One turtle at a time.</p><p class="">***</p><p class="">    They didn't see him as they ran.</p><p class="">    They didn't see the way the snapping turtle's eyes struggled to open, desperate to catch a glimpse of his surroundings.</p><p class="">    He was still on the docks, Kraang droids creating a protective barrier between him and his enemies. Raphael was thankful for this; he still felt weak from the unfair shock one of the humans had given him. From the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, everywhere ached and burned; he never wanted to move again. Of course, he would fight if it was required of him—anything to protect his masters, the Kraang—but he hurt. He really, really didn't want to.</p><p class="">    He deserved a break anyways, right? He and Mikey had protected the Kraang. Surely they'd protect them too.</p><p class="">    Except.... Raph realized with a start that he couldn't see Mikey anywhere. He wasn't next to him, and he wasn't nearby any Kraang. Anxiety spiked in Raph's mind as he tried to remember, where was Mikey??</p><p class="">    And that was when he saw it. Just before he ran around a corner, Raphael caught a glimpse of his counterpart. He ran behind the rest of his group, keeping up easily. But it wasn't him that caught Raph's eye... no, it was what he was carrying over his shoulders. Or who.</p><p class="">    They had Mikey.</p><p class="">    Adrenaline spiked and Raph's eyes shot fully open as the other Raphael escaped from view. He stole his little brother. He took him!</p><p class="">    Raph was... alone?</p><p class="">    Raphael froze, all rational thoughts halting right there. His brother was gone. His brothers were gone. He was alone. <em>He was alone</em>.</p><p class="">    The world turned red. Rage and anger clouded his mind and pushed all loyalty he had aside—everyone he saw was an enemy. Left, right, forward, behind... he was alone, and he had to defend himself. Instinct drove him into battle.</p><p class="">    He shoved himself up, injuries forgotten, and a terrifying roar escaped his mouth. He swept out an arm, knocking out three droids before they knew what hit him. The back of his neck burned, waging an internal battle as it fought for control. Raph barely even noticed, spared it no thought. Not that he was thinking much anyways. Only instinct and the need to defend himself ruled now, because he was alone and his brothers were gone and <b>he was alone</b>.</p><p class="">    The device seared marks into his skin, heating up and desperately fighting him. The Kraang called out orders, but Raph couldn't even hear them over the sound of his own savage screams. The mind control device may as well give up then and there.</p><p class="">    For who can control a mind that can't control itself?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>To recap<br/>- Kraang are collecting explosives<br/>- Rise Mikey has been taken by the 2012 gang<br/>- Rise Raph is... not in his right mind</p><p>Hope you guys enjoyed. As always, comments are appreciated. And feel free to come scream at me through my tumblr asks if you wanna too.<br/>See ya guys next week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Bittersweet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Some time spent in the lab and emotional reunions</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm giving the Rise turtles eye colors because I want to and because I can so .-. don't get confused when I describe Rise Mikey with brown eyes. I am the god of the Dagger From the Mirror universe and I say he has brown eyes &gt;:(</p><p>Anywaaayyyys hope you guys like this chapter, please enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    The next hour was the longest one of April's life.</p><p class="">    She paced back and forth outside Donnie's lab with dark eyes downturned and a deep frown on her face. The burn on her cheek hurt from being twisted like so, but she barely felt it—her own injury was the last thing on her mind. All she could think about was Mikey in the lab, and the other world's Donatello trying to help him. </p><p class="">    Upon reaching the lair, Donnie had shooed everyone but himself, his Mikey, and the Aprils from the lab. He had stated that he needed more space to work, and only the people he absolutely needed to help could stay. April to calm Mikey down in case he woke up, his world's April because he needed an assistant, and the other Mikey to keep him contained if he woke up and started to attack. Of course, everyone else was upset they couldn't stay, but Donnie was firm. Eventually Leo just led everyone out and Donnie began to work.</p><p class="">    That was around 45 minutes ago. Donnie and April worked quickly, and the controlled Mikey didn't wake up once, much to everyone's relief. The mind control device was out a half hour later. April, somehow beyond stressed and extremely relieved at the same time, had excused herself outside of the lab to try and clear her thoughts. The three remaining inside promised to call her in the second her Mikey woke up.</p><p class="">    Donnie had told her he'd probably wake up in an hour or so, but April just wanted him to get up now. She needed him to rise. She needed to see that familiar smile again. She needed to hear him being himself again. She wasn't going to feel okay until she knew with absolute certainty that Michelangelo was truly okay, and to know that, she needed to see it with her own two eyes. And until then, she was just going to continue pacing and trying to keep herself from pulling her hair out in stress. </p><p class="">    "Come on, Mikey..." She mumbled to herself, "Just wake up already..." </p><p class="">    "Yo Other Red, you okay?"</p><p class="">    April blinked, looking over to see that Casey was leaning against the wall opposite her—she hadn't even noticed him enter the hall—and stopped in her tracks. Casey raised one brow in question, prompting an answer. April hesitantly nodded.</p><p class="">    "You sure?" He chuckled, "You look 'bout ready to scream. Not that I blame you, but..."</p><p class="">    "I'm just a little stressed," April admitted, "Or, uh, a lot actually."</p><p class="">    "I get that," Casey shrugged, "Need to make sure he's okay for yourself before you believe it, right? I'd feel the same if someone I was close to got roughed up like that. Totally not cool."</p><p class="">    April nodded, slumping back against the wall. Still needing a release for all her anxious energy, she tapped her foot up and down as she spoke.</p><p class="">    "I'm just worried how he's gonna react, or what if the thing messed up his brain or something?" She shivered, thinking about just how big the device was once they removed it—the metal went deep into his neck, and she hated thinking about it. It was almost definitely going to leave a scar. "What if he's changed forever?"</p><p class="">    "Our April was worried about the same thing happenin' with her dad, you know," Casey said, "I wasn't there, but she's told me stories. Her dad's okay, and the only side effects were just... natural ones that happen when you go through shit like that. Mikey'll be okay otherwise."</p><p class="">    "Well, that's good," April mumbled, "I think..."</p><p class="">    "He'll be alright, just give him some time to wake up and to deal with everything." Casey grinned widely, "If he's anything like these guys, he'll bounce back alright. Just needs some time."</p><p class="">    April thought back to all the things she and her family had gone through in the past year. Fighting the Shredder, trapping him and handing him over to Big Mama, their crazy fights with Draxum, Meatsweats, Hypno, the Foot in general... Mikey had dealt with it all. He was still dealing with it, since they all knew the Foot were still a threat, still desperately trying to find a way to bring their leader back. Mikey was handling it so well it was impressive.</p><p class="">    Losing your own identity was a lot worse than any of that, she was pretty sure, but Mikey had dealt with so much already at such a young age and still come out kicking. He kept his joy and optimism and stayed their bright light in a sea of darkness. </p><p class="">    She hoped that light would stay lit through this too.</p><p class="">    "And you'll be okay too, ya know." Casey wasn't done. He placed his arms behind his head, relaxed and comfortable as could be, and chuckled. "April's tough, and I'll bet you are too. You guys got a crazy life as it is, with the whole psychic and part alien thing. You'll deal with this fine."</p><p class="">    April froze, staring at Casey as if he just sprouted three extra heads. "The whole what now?"'</p><p class="">    "Oh, are you not-"</p><p class="">    "April!" A shout stopped Casey in his tracks, and April spun around to see her counterpart leaning out the lab door, beaming with excitement. April's eyes widened, all shock from Casey's words forgotten. Could it be...?</p><p class="">    "Is he-"</p><p class="">    "He's waking up," The April of this world nodded quickly, grabbing her counterpart by the wrist and dragging her fully into the lab. "Come on! He's gonna want to see you, we need to hurry."</p><p class="">    April didn't need to be told twice. She ran ahead of her alternate self, slipping from her grasp, speeding towards where she knew the rest of the group was. Mikey was waking up. Mikey was waking up!</p><p class="">    The second she saw the young turtle sitting on the table, blinking and rubbing his eyes, it was as though all air had been knocked out of her. Mikey swayed slightly from where he sat, squeezing his eyes shut and looking as lost and dizzy as ever—if it weren't for the clear attempts at grounding himself, April would be wondering if he was conscious at all or just sleepwalking. Donnie had a hand on the young teen's shell, keeping him from falling over, and April was frozen in her tracks.</p><p class="">    Then, Mikey blinked again, and slowly raised his head. His eyes had returned to the brilliant, bright brown she had known for so long, no longer the cold dead white ones he had been stuck with for the past week. They were bright, they were wide, they were innocent, and they were so <em>Mikey</em>. </p><p class="">    He was himself again.</p><p class="">    "April?" Mikey's voice was weak and tired, straining under the effort to move his lips. His face was scrunched up, staring at April and then at the individuals surrounding him in confusion—April could practically see the gears turning in his head as he desperately tried to figure out what was going on. April approached him slowly.</p><p class="">    "Hey Mikey," She said gently, setting a hand on his shoulder and blinking back tears herself. Mikey tilted his head slightly in question, opening his mouth and beginning to ask something, when his eyes locked on the burn on April's cheek.</p><p class="">    The wall of confusion collapsed. Mikey jerked back harshly from her touch, shoving himself back with such force that he pushed himself right off the table and fell to the concrete floor with a painful <em>thud</em>. Eyes wider than should be possible, he stared in horrified realization of exactly who gave her that new mark, and his breath came out in gasps and pants as the memories finally came flooding back. Flashbacks of the last week crashed into him like waves, knocking all air out of his lungs and threatening to drown him where he sat. He slammed a hand over his own mouth.</p><p class="">    April ran around the table, reaching out for Mikey desperately. She backed up as though she had been punched when he backed away from her touch yet again, staring at her hand as if it were poisoned. His shell slammed against the wall and he shook his head desperately as the words came tumbling out.</p><p class="">    "April I- I didn't- I, no, I. they-"</p><p class="">    Ignoring the rest of the group still watching them, April knelt down in front of Mikey again. His eyes had locked back on the burn again, and she never wished for a mask or a bandage more so than in his moment.</p><p class="">    "Mikey, it's okay, I promise," She practically begged, "I'm okay, you're safe, it's going to be okay, just calm down. I'm here."</p><p class="">    She reached out again, and since he had nowhere farther to scoot back this time, Mikey didn't move. She took both of his hands and held them tightly, and clenched her jaw when he refused to meet her eyes. </p><p class="">    "I didn't want- I'm, I couldn't, they-" Mikey stammered, shaking his head more and more without stopping. He squeezed his eyes shut, still trying to force words out without knowing what he even wanted to say. Mikey, who was usually so good with his emotions, the only one who knew how to articulate what he and others were feeling at times... He was shaking, nearly breaking. He never looked so young.</p><p class="">    Clenching his fists tightly, Mikey finally met her gaze, as he finally latched onto the single thing he knew he wanted to say, no, what he <em>had </em>to say. His words came out breathless and broken, shattering April's soul into pieces, and he said the saddest three words she's ever heard in her life</p><p class="">    "April, <em>I'm sorry</em>."</p><p class="">    April couldn't stop the tears this time. With a cry of anguish, she pulled her little brother into the tightest hug she could, and he buried his head in her shoulder. He gripped the back of her shirt tightly, his lifeline, and he was just as much hers. Sounds of sob echoed through the lab and her shirt soaked through with tears, but April couldn't find it in herself to care. She just held him tightly.</p><p class="">"   You're okay, Mikey," She whispered, hugging him tighter, "You're going to be okay. It's okay. You're safe now."</p><p class="">    His tightened hold on her was his only response.</p><p class="">***</p><p class="">    The other April and Mikey ended up staying like that for a long time, and Leo wasn't sure what to do. He felt awkward just standing there, and he could tell by the anxious way they shifted from foot to foot that the rest of his team was too. Should they leave them to be for a bit? Should they try and help offer comfort? Should they interrupt and get to the topic at hand?</p><p class="">    Leo blinked when he saw Mikey—his own brother—take a step forward and nod towards the back of the lab. <em>Give them space</em>, Mikey didn't say, but ordered them nonetheless. Donnie didn't seem comfortable leaving the two alone, but Mikey grabbed him by the arm and tugged him towards the exit. Leo gave him a silent glare, and Donnie stopped trying to pull away. He eventually relented. Raph, Casey, and their April followed them out.</p><p class="">    And so the six of them stood outside the lab, waiting. </p><p class="">    Splinter came by at one point, asking Donatello how the situation was going. Donnie quickly told him that the other Mikey was free, and they had decided to give him and the other April some space to deal with the initial turmoil. Splinter had paused then, staring at the closed lab door with a faraway look in his eyes. </p><p class="">    "Losing control of your own mind is not an easy thing to deal with," He had said thoughtfully, voice void of its usual authoritative edge, "It damages you in ways physical pain cannot. He will need time to heal, but he will be okay."</p><p class="">    Splinter had hesitated, contemplating his next words carefully. When he spoke once again, his voice was quieter, strained with memories of his own past. He didn't meet his family's eyes.</p><p class="">    "And if he would ever like to speak to someone who understands what it's like, please let him know I'm here. I may not understand what it is like to serve the Kraang, but the Rat King was no kinder a master."</p><p class="">    And with that, Splinter had walked away. </p><p class="">    It fell silent once again.</p><p class="">    It took another ten minutes before the lab door opened a final time, and the other April gestured for them all to come back in. Leo, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph followed her inside, while Casey and their April decided to remain out for the time being. Better to wait, and not overwhelm the new Mikey too much—they could always meet him later, once he was in a bit better of a mindset.</p><p class="">    When the four turtles came back into the lab, the other Mikey seemed to be doing a little bit better. He wasn't cowering on the floor in tears, at least. Mikey was standing back by the table again, leaning slightly against it and rubbing his arm with his right hand, hunched in over on himself ever so slightly. Leo paused, nodding towards his brothers a quiet signal to spread themselves out a little. A casual conversation was what they needed, not an interrogation of four against one.</p><p class="">    April took her place besides the new Mikey and wrapped an arm around his shoulders comfortingly, and he smiled in appreciation, albeit still looking quite hesitant and sad. Leo approached him slowly and held out a hand.</p><p class="">    "Hello Mikey," He said slowly, still not quite sure how to start the conversation. Perhaps a standard introduction wasn't the best way to go, but it couldn't be the worst either. "I'm this world's Leonardo. How are you feeling?"</p><p class="">    "Hey Leo," The new Mikey took his hand and shook it carefully. The hesitance looked so unnatural on him, even if Leo had only met him. But he guessed it made sense, all things considered. "Sorry for attacking you... that wasn't very nice of me."</p><p class="">    "It wasn't your fault," Leo assured, "Don't sweat it. We're all fine."</p><p class="">    "What about you, though?" Donnie stepped forward, looking over the other Mikey carefully, "How are you feeling? Do you feel sick at all, or anything?"</p><p class="">    Mikey blinked, looking a little confused once again. "Oh, I'm feeling okay! My neck is a little sore, but I'm alright."</p><p class="">    Donnie nodded, "Okay, good. There shouldn't be any lasting side effects, but I know Mr. O'Neil mentioned he had some pretty bad migraines for about a week after we got the control device off of him... so let me know if you feel sick at all, okay? No matter how minor, let me know."</p><p class="">    Mikey nodded quickly. Their Mikey, however, had seemed to have enough of the awkward small talk of their first conversations. He ran over to his younger counterpart, getting real close, and spoke rapidly.</p><p class="">    "Yo, dude! We're the same person, this is so cool!" He exclaimed, grabbing Mikey by the shoulders and shaking him. That Mikey blinked, caught very off guard. "Dude, this is so awesome, we gotta hang out. Can you show me your fire chucks? Can I try them? They look so cool!"</p><p class="">    "Mikey, back off!" Raph exclaimed, grabbing his little brother by the back of his shell and pulling him away. "Give him some space, he just-" Raph stopped.</p><p class="">    The younger Mikey's mouth had slowly widened into a bright smile, excitement quietly taking precedence over the earlier fear. Raphael let go of his brother.</p><p class="">    "You wanna hang out?" The younger Mikey asked, "That'd be really cool! Yeah, I can show you my fire-chucks! They're not as cool as my kusari-fundo, but yeah you can try them!"</p><p class="">    Leo and Raph shared a confused look at each other. Usually, they had to stop their brother from ruining careful conversations with laughter and jokes, but this was different. The other Mikey's entire demeanor had changed in an instant as soon as they started talking. From hesitant and afraid to loud and grinning, he seemed more comfortable already. He beamed at his counterpart, who shot a smile right back.</p><p class="">    Judging by April's gentle grin, he was already more like his old self. Looks like Mikey knew what he was doing, switching the conversation like that.</p><p>    "Sweet!!" Their Mikey exclaimed. "Lil' me, your brothers must be so much cooler than mine—they really let you play with fire?! Mine won't even consider it. Lame, right?"</p><p>    "Let me? They couldn't stop me if they tried!" The other Mikey laughed. Leo sighed.</p><p>    "Dude, you are so lucky!"</p><p>    "Yeah! We-"</p><p>    "Hey, uh, not to stop this important conversation," Donnie interrupted, stepping closer. The other Mikey raised one brow ridge in question, and Donnie continued, "But we do have some important things we really need to talk about... Starting with this. Mikey, do you know where your Leo and Donnie are?"</p><p>    "Leo and Donnie?" Little Mikey blinked, and shook his head, "No, uh.... I haven't seen them in a while. After they..."</p><p>    He hesitated again, but April nodded a silent encouragement. He took a deep breath and continued.</p><p>    "After they took us all, they split us up, and I have no idea where Donnie or Leo are... they told us Donnie said hi when they gave us the weapons he made us, but that's it. I haven't seen either of them." Mikey paused, looking around in confusion, "Hey wait, speaking of brothers—where's Raph?"</p><p>    They all hesitated, but it was their Raphael who replied. He shifted awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke.</p><p>    "We couldn't get 'im Mikey," He said slowly. Mikey's eyes widened, expression twisted into a completely horrified one.</p><p>    "You- what do you mean you couldn't get him?" He exclaimed, "You knocked him out before me!"</p><p>    "The Kraang brought in reinforcements," Leo explained, "We tried, but there was no way we could get you both back."</p><p>    "So you left him alone?!" Mikey demanded, and when they nodded, Mikey rubbed his face with his hand and groaned, "Guys, you can't just leave him alone like that! There was a reason we were paired together—now he's gonna go all weird!"</p><p>    "He still goes savage under the mind control?" April asked, and Mikey nodded. April frowned, "Huh, I would've thought that'd've cancelled it out."</p><p>    Donnie frowned, "What are you guys talking about?" and Mikey sighed, clearly stressed. </p><p>    "Raph goes all... weird when he's alone," Mikey explained, hands gesturing aimlessly. Leo remembered April mentioning something about that earlier, but hadn't realized how serious it was until now, "He can't control himself and thinks everyone is an enemy—even us, his brothers! He attacks everyone and everything... it's a little scary... We can't leave him alone for too long because of that, he needs us or at least to know where we are and that we're okay."</p><p>    "That would be a problem," Donnie crossed his arms, "but the Kraang mind control devices should override that, even if you're away from him, right?"</p><p>    Mikey shook his head.</p><p>    "Why do you think I was with him in the first place? The Kraang split all four of us up that first day. I was supposed to be the only Kraang bodyguard—I don't know what they had everyone else doing, but clearly that plan didn't work out with Raph. The only reason they paired me and him up was because Raph kept attacking them when he was away from us!"</p><p>    "So what you're saying is, your Raph's alone right now and in this 'weird' state because you're not with him, and their devices don't work properly with that?" Donnie asked. He frowned, holding his chin between one finger and thumb as he thought aloud, "It's not going to be easy for the Kraang to control him like that, based on what you're saying. If they couldn't get you back, I'm going to guess they're going to have to either sedate him or get him to his other brothers, if he hasn't escaped already."</p><p>    "They carried tranquillizers with them at all time because of that..." Mikey mumbled, "I don't think he escaped..."</p><p>    The younger Mikey's face fell downcast at this, but before anyone could offer any support, Leo gasped and grinned. He hit his palm with the bottom of his other fist, voice raised in excitement. He addressed the whole room. </p><p>    "Wait, no, this could work in our favor. This is good! Really good!"</p><p>    "Good?!" The other Mikey exclaimed, very offended. "My brother is in his weird state and kidnapped by aliens and you say it's good?!"</p><p>    "Yeah, Leo, that is a kinda messed up thing to say," Raph muttered, "And that's coming from me."</p><p>    "No no, you don't understand," Leo said, "Think about it. We don't know where Leo and Donnie are, but we have a pretty good idea of where we can find their Raph. If he is going 'savage', and they have to get him near his other brothers to stop it..."</p><p>    "And we can use that to figure out where they are!" Donnie finished his sentence for him, grinning widely too at the realization, "Leo, you're right. This is perfect!"</p><p>    "What if they already took him there, though?" April cut in, "It's been a couple hours since he was left alone... How fast do the Kraang usually work?"</p><p>    "They're kinda slow at things," The young Mikey muttered, "When he went savage the first time, it took about a day for them to bring him to me, I think. They kept him in some cell until then. We should have time if they aren't rushing?"</p><p>    "Dudes, you'd think for genius aliens planning this for so long, they'd be quicker," Their Mikey rolled his eyes, "I mean, come on Kraang! You're sloowww!"</p><p class="">    "We're gonna have to go into some Kraang facility too, if that's where they have their holding cells," Donnie mused, "I'll check some cameras and the sensors I have tonight to see if I can figure out which one they brought the other Raph to. This could easily knock out two birds with one stone! If we get inside, I can try and hack into the Kraang databases from inside. My alternate self won't be as able to stop that since it will look like it's just another Kraang accessing their normal files. I'll have a better chance at getting information on the portals to the other dimension this time."</p><p>    Leo looked around at his team, along with the two newest members. April had the biggest smile on her face they've seen yet, eyes gleaming with a new determination. She still had her arm firmly around her Mikey, holding him tightly, as though she were afraid to let go. Considering what happened last time she did, no one could blame her for that. Little Mikey seemed to appreciate it, his right hand holding onto her arm just as tightly. He was smiling, though still a bit hesitant at the plan. Leo recognized the same optimism-covered fear in his eyes that he all too often found in his own brother. But mixed in with the memories and pain, there was also determination, and he would fight too right along side them. </p><p>    Leo was pleased to find all three of his own brothers with their own supportive stances surrounding him. They were onboard with the plan too... and something told him their April and Casey would be too.</p><p>    "That settles it," Leo grinned, standing up and placing his hands on his hips, only to point one finger up as he began to announce the plan (the pose no doubt stolen from one of Captain Ryan's many heroic speeches). He met each of their eyes as he spoke, one by one.</p><p>    "First thing tomorrow night, we're going to break into the Kraang facility that Donnie finds, and we're going to find the other Raphael. No attacking until after we find out where his brothers are—Donnie can hack into the computers to get information on the portals while we wait. Only after we find out where his brothers are will we get the other Raphael free, and then-"</p><p>    "And then the main event," Raph spun his sais around and smirked, "The Great Kraang Beatdown."</p><p>    Leo laughed, "Yeah, and then the Great Kraang Beatdown."</p><p>    The younger Mikey jumped up then, pulling out his nunchucks from their place on his belt. Spinning them around, he grinned again. "They won't last a chance, they're gonna pay for what they did! And," He grinned, "I got a message from Dr. Delicate Touch. He'd got something to say."</p><p>    Donnie blinked, glancing over to April for an explanation. She laughed.</p><p>    "It means he means business," April said, and then turned to the smaller turtle, still smiling. "It's really good to have you back, Mikey."</p><p>    "Yeah," Mikey smiled, the familiar innocence finally back where it belonged. He threw his arms back around April, hugging her tightly once again.</p><p>    "It's good to be back."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Rise Mikey's pov to come later, he's not done dealing with this emotionally :(</p><p>Comments are appreciated &lt;3 love you guys, thanks for reading, see you next week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Knowing Gaze</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mikey gets a turn at being a big bro, the turtles get some sleep finally, and the Aprils and Casey hang out with a "friend"</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Mikey was full of surprises, even if he was now in full control of his own actions again.</p>
<p>    His April had thought that she had a good idea of how he'd act now that he was free. Usually when Mikey got scared, he would attach to the side of someone he trusted and refuse to let go. He became clingy. That was just how he reacted to scary situations he couldn't immediately fix. Surely, April thought, having just escaped evil mind control would lead to the same reaction<em>.</em> Right?</p>
<p>    Wrong. </p>
<p>    As soon as their discussion with the turtles of this world ended, Mikey had backed away from everyone, staying at least five feet apart from the rest of the group minimum, including his April. Why, April wanted to know, would he avoid her of all people? </p>
<p>    Strangely enough, the only person he was speaking to normally was his counterpart., and he just tried to subtly move away from everyone else. He attempted to make the movements not too obvious, but April was on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary with him—she was worried! He was avoiding her and that wasn't normal.</p>
<p>    No matter. She figured that maybe he just wanted some physical space from other people. Technically, this world's Mikey was the same person as her Mikey, so maybe that was why he was an exception. He wasn't going to avoid himself or something like that. In all honesty, it made zero sense to April, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel a little jealous that her little brother-figure was avoiding her and not someone he only just properly met an hour ago, but she tried to be understanding. Mikey just went through a traumatic experience. If she just backed up a bit, gave him some space, then it wouldn't be a problem. He'd talk to her normally again in no time.</p>
<p>    But then an hour passed, then two, and he still barely spoke to anyone. Only Michelangelo. He turned in for bed at around 3 am, earlier than anyone else in their nocturnal group would even consider sleeping, and slept in his counterpart's room. April watched with sadness when he wouldn't even look at her as he said good night. </p>
<p>    "Is it just me," She asked this world's Donatello after the door was shut, "Or is he avoiding me a little bit?"</p>
<p>    "No," Donatello agreed, "It's not just you. You're right."</p>
<p>    Leo crossed his arms from where he sat on the ground a few feet away, giving up on his short attempt at mediation for the time being. "He wasn't really talking to anyone, April. Not just you." </p>
<p>    "He was talking to me!" This world's Mikey exclaimed, "We were having fun, I showed him Ice Cream Kitty, he loved her!"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, but you're still the only one he was acting even remotely comfortable with," Raph said, "New April is right, it's kinda weird, considering she's the only one he's actually close too."</p>
<p>    April huffed, "Normally when he's upset, he hates being alone! We've been close for so long, he tells me everything. Is he mad at me?"</p>
<p>    "He's probably just stressed out from everything that's goin' on, you can't blame the little guy for that," Casey piped up, entering the room from the kitchen with a bag of chips. He sat next to this world's April, offering some of the snack to her before turning back to the other April, "I mean, come on Red Number 2, give him some time."</p>
<p>    "Red Number 2? Really?" Donnie rolled his eyes, and Casey shrugged.</p>
<p>    "I'm not upset at him, I'm worried!" New April exclaimed, "What if something's really wrong? He just got back, I don't wanna lose him again. I'm really really worried..."</p>
<p>    "Why don't you just ask our Mikey to talk to little Mikey?" Raph asked, raising one brow and leaning back against the concrete ledge of the pit. "He's the only one he's talking to anyways. He can go ask what's wrong."</p>
<p>    "Yeah, dude!" Michelangelo grinned, jumping up, "We're like best friends now, I can talk to him!" </p>
<p>    "That sounds like a good plan to me," This world's April agreed as she took another chip from Casey. She turned to her counterpart, "Why not give it a shot?"</p>
<p>    Other April frowned, pushing her glasses up and sighing. She'd be lying if she said she didn't want to be the one to talk to him, but they were right; for whatever reason, her Mikey was only comfortable with his counterpart for now. If she wanted to help him, going along with this plan would probably be the best idea. Unfortunately.</p>
<p>    As long as it helped him... April sighed.</p>
<p>    "Okay. Sounds good to me."</p>
<p>    "Alright, since that's settled..." Leo stood up and stretched. He glanced at the clock before turning to his brothers, "It's almost 7, and we have a big night coming. We should head to bed. Mikey, you can talk to yourself when you guys wake up, alright?"</p>
<p>    April watched as the brothers grumbled a bit, but listened, since they were all exhausted from the night they just had. The battle had worn all of them out. These turtles had taken on her Raph and Mikey and the Kraang too, and then Donnie had went through even more trying to get that horrible device out of little Mikey's neck. Even if she wanted to go figure out what was wrong with her Mikey immediately instead of waiting, she was thankful that they were getting some sleep. They deserved it more than anyone else in the world did.</p>
<p>    With the brothers gone, only April, her counterpart, and Casey Jones remained. The red-haired April spoke first.</p>
<p>    "Oh, April," She said, leaning forward on her seat, "I forgot to tell you, but me and Casey were gonna go hang out with another friend later this afternoon after a quick nap, while the guys sleep. You can come, if you want."</p>
<p>    "First the third wheel, now you're adding a fourth wheel to our date too?!" Casey exclaimed, groaning and throwing himself back against the ledge dramatically, "This is torture!"</p>
<p>    His April rolled her eyes, while the other April chuckled.</p>
<p>    "I mean, it sounds like fun," She said slowly, brown eyes locked on the Mikeys' closed door, "But I don't know if I wanna leave him alone so soon..."</p>
<p>    "He's safe in the lair with the guys," Her counterpart said, "and probably going to be asleep for a while anyways. It'd be good for you to get out of the sewers for a bit, maybe see some of the city and see if anything is different."</p>
<p>    New April hesitated, biting her lower lip anxiously. These new turtles had long since earned her trust—she knew Mikey would be safe with them—but that didn't make her any less hesitant to leave him alone for too long. What if he needed her, and she wasn't there? What if something happened while she was gone? What if the Kraang came and took him away and she wasn't there to stop it? What if Mikey thought she abandoned him?</p>
<p>    Taking a deep breath, April shook her head. Mikey would be fine, none of those things would happen, and Michelangelo was in the room with him anyways. He was the only one her Mikey would talk to after all, and he could protect him if something went wrong. His brothers would help too. Little Mikey would be okay, and April knew her counterpart was right. Staying in the sewer for a week straight and only coming out for battling wasn't that healthy...</p>
<p>    "Alright," She finally said, smiling softly, "I guess I don't have much else to do. I'm in."</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    New York City was dull.</p>
<p>    That was all that April could think about as she walked the streets with her two new friends. She hadn't taken much time to really acknowledge what this world looked like before, being too busy running for her life or fighting for her turtles' lives, but now that she did, she realized just how much she hated it. This city was nothing like her own. There was no color to this world, and barely any life.</p>
<p>    She missed the purple and blue hues of her city's towers and the hundreds of people on the streets at all times, laughing and yelling and talking and talking. She missed the little kids running around, tripping over cracks in the sidewalk and competing in bicycle races of their own creation. She missed the jokes she used to overhear from passing groups of teenagers.  She missed the salesmen telling her she needed something she didn't want, and the street side vendors who looked the other way as Mayhem teleported in front of them, and the hints of magic one could see around every corner as soon as they knew what to look for. She missed the warmth and life of her city.</p>
<p>    April had visited cemeteries that had more life than this.</p>
<p>    Regretting all the times she cursed the noise back home, April wondered how nobody here died of boredom. She had thought the turtle's lair was dreary, but even <em>that </em>relatively emptyplace was more inspired than this. How did this world's April like it here? </p>
<p class="">    "You okay?" April blinked, turning to see her counterpart staring at her in concern. She quickly nodded.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, just comparing here to my city," She answered honestly, "It's... really different."</p>
<p>    Casey laughed.</p>
<p>    "Must be insanely different, by the look on your face," Casey grinned, a goofy look on his face, "Our place just too awesome for ya, or something like that?"</p>
<p>    "Something like that.." April mumbled, rolling her eyes. She glanced around, frown deepening, before turning to her counterpart. "Hey, where are we going anyways?"</p>
<p>    "We're gonna meet a friend and go see a movie," The April of this world replied, checking her phone, "Oh, she's at the theater already, so she's gonna walk to us since we're still pretty far. I can't wait for you to meet her! You're gonna love her, she's great."</p>
<p class="">    Casey rolled his eyes at this, "If by great you mean a total loser-" This world's April elbowed him harshly in the side, and he threw his arms up in surrender, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Ow, man, that hurt!"</p>
<p class="">    "Oh get over it, you big baby," His April replied, laughing, "I've seen Raph punch you harder than that and you never complain."</p>
<p class="">    "That's different, I get to hit him back twice as hard and he's cool with it!"</p>
<p>    April watched the two friends argue, chuckling and shaking her head slightly. They were having fun, and that was a nice break from the nonstop stress of the last week. She was glad they had dragged her along on this outing; the sewers were great, but a girl had to get out once in a while too. If she hadn't come, she would've just spent the whole time worrying over her Mikey and possibly waking him up from checking on him too often. This gave her a chance to breathe and think.</p>
<p>    And speaking of thinking... something popped up in her mind, something Casey had said and she hadn't had the chance to address quite yet. She turned to the two, interrupting their conversation with a frown.</p>
<p>    "Hey, wait a minute. Casey, you never explained what you meant about the whole half alien thing."</p>
<p>    "Huh?" Casey froze, looking back and forth between the two April's before turning to his April, "You never told her?"</p>
<p>    This world's April shrugged. "It never came up."</p>
<p>    "What never came up?" New April placed her hands on her hips, refusing to walk any further. She needed answers, and she wasn't moving until she got them. "You can't say something like that and not explain. Tell me what's going on with her and 'the whole psychic and part alien thing' you mentioned," She said, waving two fingers on each hand in mock quotations. Casey nudged this world's April.</p>
<p>    "Your life, Red, you explain it."</p>
<p>    "Gee, thanks Jones," She rolled her eyes and sighed. The annoyance wasn't too serious though, as she then turned to April to explain without another complaint.</p>
<p>    "It's... basically just what he said." She said, glancing around to make sure no one was in earshot before continuing. "The Kraang have been experimenting on my family for a long time, and they wanted to use my DNA to perfect their mutagen or whatever—you can talk to Donnie about that later if you're curious."</p>
<p>    "Perfect their mutagen?" April mumbled, her face scrunched up in confusion. That was... something, to be sure. She definitely planned on asking Donnie what that meant later.</p>
<p>    Her counterpart continued, "So they've been experimenting on my family for a long time and it all kinda led up to me, and I'm like, some kind of mutant hybrid between the Kraang and humans... It sucks, and I lost my mom to the Kraang because of it."</p>
<p>    She paused, and smiled. "But on the bright side, I got psychic powers out of it. So, uh, that's cool, I guess." Despite her grin, it was clear by the grief in her eyes she didn't find it as bright as she claimed.</p>
<p>    The other April blinked. No way could that all be true.</p>
<p>    "You're not serious, are you?"</p>
<p>    "Unfortunately."</p>
<p>    "I always thought that'd be like, a universal April thing," Casey shrugged, turning and squinting at the new April accusingly, "And you're suuuuuurreeee you're not actually part Kraang?"</p>
<p>    "That is absolutely <b><em>not </em></b>a universal April thing," She crossed her arms, glaring, "I am <em>not</em> part alien and I already told you the Kraang don't exist in my world, or at least they're not on Earth! With how fast word spreads down in the Hidden City and everything Don monitors, there's no way we wouldn't know about them. And they've definitely never touched my family."</p>
<p>    Casey shrugged, and this world's April bit her lip, looking a little uncomfortable. The other April hesitated, feeling a little guilty.</p>
<p>    "Sorry, is that a sore topic?"</p>
<p>    "A little," Her counterpart admitted, rubbing her upper arm, "It's okay though, you didn't know. I'm glad you and your family don't have to deal with that."</p>
<p>    April nodded, smiling sadly, "I don't know exactly what you went through, April, but I understand how hard it is to deal with the Kraang trying to take your family away. I'm really sorry you had to go through that too with your mom, and..."</p>
<p><em>    Lost them forever </em>hung in the air, but she didn't bother finishing her thought. That only made the possibility of the same thing happening to <em>her</em> family too real. She didn't want to say it.</p>
<p>    "You're really close to the turtles," Casey interrupted, "How long have you known them?"</p>
<p>    And that was yet another difference in this universe that April had nearly forgotten about. She knew that her counterpart and Casey probably didn't know their turtles as long as she had known hers, but to acknowledge it was a whole different story. She began walking again, glancing between both of them as she spoke.</p>
<p>    "I was around 8 when we met. I got lost walking home from a friends house—his dad was supposed to drive me home, but he fell asleep and I was a dumb little kid who didn't feel like waiting... I got lost within five minutes of sneaking out. I was lucky Splinter had taken Donnie out with him to scavenge that night, 'cause I had gotten scared and hit in an alley where they just so happened to be. They helped me get home." She paused, looking at the other two, "What about you guys?"</p>
<p>    "I've only known them for like, two months," Casey said, "I got into a fight with Raph and we tried to kill each other, and the fight was wicked! We both almost died but it's cool now, obviously"</p>
<p>    "It's been about a year for me," This world's April said, "They saved me after the Kraang kidnapped me and my father. But you literally grew up with them, huh?"</p>
<p>    The new April nodded. She had.</p>
<p>    "Wow. You guys are <em>really </em>late."</p>
<p>    The group of three froze, turning around to see a young girl standing behind them. She was young, probably around the same age as them, and had an annoyed scowl etched onto her lips. Her purple hair framed her face evenly, and she wore a dark tank top with an orange scarf wrapped around her neck. Glasses covered dark eyes narrowed in annoyance, her arms folded across her chest as she raised one brow at the group. April didn't recognize her, but by the smile on her counterpart's face and the grumble from Casey, they definitely did. </p>
<p>    "Irma!" This world's April grinned, "Yeah, sorry, we got caught up in talking. Didn't mean to be late."</p>
<p>    "The movie's starting in like, five minutes," Irma replied, rolling her eyes. She paused then, glancing over her friend's shoulder and spotting the other girl behind her. "Uh, who is that?"</p>
<p>    "Oh, that's uh-" </p>
<p>    "My cousin!" Casey butted in, throwing an arm over New April's shoulders quickly, grinning. " Her name is April too, crazy coincidence huh? She's staying here for the month, and we're showing her around the city! She's never been here before."</p>
<p>    April just rolled with it, holding out a hand towards Irma, "Uh, yeah! Never been to New York before. Or any city actually! I'm from, uh, a farm... out in the.... midwest...."</p>
<p>    Irma stared at her suspiciously, ignoring the hand. She watched the new April with unmoving eyes. Her gaze was unnerving, and an involuntary shiver ran down April's spine. </p>
<p>    "April, huh?" Irma asked, still staring, "And you said you just got here?" </p>
<p>    April nodded, letting her hand drop back down after she declined the handshake. Irma adjusted her glasses.</p>
<p>    "And you're also April? Crazy coincidence," She muttered, smiling slightly. "But I suppose it's a small world, huh?"</p>
<p>    "Uh, yeah..." April mumbled quietly. Irma seemed satisfied with that response, and asked nothing more of her. She turned around and started walking towards the entrance of the movie theater.</p>
<p>    "Well, like I said, the movie is about to start. If we go in now, we'll probably just miss the commericals." </p>
<p>    The April of this world followed her in. Casey started to go along too, but the other April caught him by the arm before he could get too far. He looked back at her in confusion.</p>
<p>    "Is it just me," April asked, "Or does she seem really weird?"</p>
<p>    "Irma?" Casey shrugged, "She's always like that. Wouldn't stop watching me all creepy-like when we first met too... I don't think she likes anyone besides April, and I don't get why Red likes her so much, but eh, whatever."</p>
<p>    "So it's normal?" New April asked, frowning. Casey nodded.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, she's just creepy. Don't let her get to ya, okay?"</p>
<p>    With that, Casey entered the building, and April hesitated.</p>
<p>    She didn't know what it was about her, but something about that girl made every instinct in her scream out in warning. The odd stares, the suspicious tone to her voice, the unnatural blinking... something about Irma wasn't right, and April wished more than anything she knew what it was. </p>
<p>    But her counterpart trusted her. April didn't know much about this dimension anyways, and everything around her had seemed off in one way or another since the beginning. Sure, nothing about the other strange actions and environments made her as comfortable as this did, but it was probably just her own paranoia. April wasn't going to be rude and act like she could boss anyone around in a world she'd only been in for a week. The nerves were probably just anxiety and nothing more, nothing to worry about at all.</p>
<p>    "It's all in your head, O'Neil," She whispered to herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "It's no big deal. Be nice to your other self's friends. This is their world, not yours."</p>
<p>    She breathed out slowly, and entered the theater. </p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    The lair was quiet. </p>
<p>    This was strange occurrence on its own; usually, at least one person was awake at all times. Sometimes it was Leo, stressing himself out about the weight of the world on his shoulders. Other times it was Mikey suffering from insomnia or Raph struggling with nightmares. Most often it was Donnie, working himself to death on yet another major project it would take anyone else years to complete. And almost every night, it was Splinter pacing the halls, worrying about all four of those circumstances.</p>
<p>    But that day was a rare exception, and all five members of the household were sleeping soundly.</p>
<p>    Their guest was the exception this time.</p>
<p>    Mikey had counted himself lucky to get an hour of sleep. When he had told the others goodnight and made himself comfortable in his counterpart's room, he hadn't actually expected to sleep at all. Sure, he promised everyone else he'd try and sleep soundly. Sure, he set up a blanket and tucked himself in. And sure, he made himself as comfortable as could be and turned out the light. But he was just going through the motions. In reality, Mikey had planned to lay there and think and worry and cry the whole time.</p>
<p>    So even if he was now tangled in the blankets with his shell pressed harshly against the cold wall, tears streaming down his cheeks, he had still managed to get an hour of sleep. That was good, right?</p>
<p>    Mikey didn't want to be here. He wanted to be home. He hated it here.</p>
<p>    And that was saying something, because Mikey never hated anything, or anyone. Not even the villains he fought everyday back home.</p>
<p>    He had been the first one to forgive Draxum, the first one to offer a hand in forgiveness the second he got the chance. He claimed it was because he had a hand in making them, but in reality? Mikey doubted he would've acted much different even if that weren't the case. He was family, yes, but he was first and foremost a person in need. Draxum was suffering for his crimes, and despite all the pain he put himself and his brothers through, Mikey's heart had cried out to him in empathy. He had to help.</p>
<p>    The other bad guys weren't too different. Sure, Mikey hadn't helped them redeem themselves, but they hadn't shown any signs of being able to change just yet. If any of them asked for forgiveness or wanted to better themselves, he doubted he'd have trouble doing the same for them. Meat Sweats, Repo, Hypno... Mikey was a true believer that everyone had a good side. Even the most hardened hearts out there had some good in there, somewhere. It just took a little love and trust and a hand extended in friendship, and everyone's good side would show up eventually. Mikey believed in this just as much as he believed in his brothers and the rest of his family. Everyone had a good side. He couldn't hate anyone.</p>
<p>    Or, at least, he thought he couldn't. </p>
<p>    The raging fire of pure hatred seethed through Mikey, twisting his gut and prodding at his heart. It scorched his very soul, and only grew in intensity each time he thought of the wretched creatures that stole his mind. No matter what he tried to distract himself with, he couldn't stop thinking about them, couldn't purge them from his thoughts—the Kraang had branded themselves there, and he couldn't wipe that away no matter how hard he tried. Their filth was a permanent addition to his mind.</p>
<p>    And that filth fueled the new hatred he felt coursing through his veins, crying to be unleashed in a fit of rage that would destroy their entire empire. He hated them. He hated them so much and he wasn't used to feeling that way. All Mikey wanted to do was to stomp every single Kraang out there into a pile of goo, and he hated himself for feeling that way.</p>
<p>    It felt disgusting and dirty, to hate like this. He never wanted to hate anyone. He just wanted to help people.</p>
<p>    But the Kraang stole him. They stole his own mind, and that was sacred. This was more than just a simple battle that gave him bruises and bloody noses, or even the occasional broken bone. No, this was so much worse. They had carved their way into his very soul, stole everything that made him <em>him</em>, and twisted and bended all of it until it shattered. Then, they turned the broken pieces of his soul into weapons, and used the razor sharp edges to slice into the hearts of the people he loved. That was unforgivable.</p>
<p>    Mikey tightened his hold on the pillow again, trying to keep his breathing under control. His counterpart snored silently from across the room, and he didn't want to wake him, not yet. Michelangelo had to be exhausted from fighting him and his brother, and he didn't want to prevent him from getting the sleep he needed. He couldn't do that to him.</p>
<p>    Tears were forming at the edges of his eyes now, and he shoved his face into the pillow. <em>Be quiet</em>, he scolded himself mentally, <em>be quiet! </em></p>
<p>    He hated the Kraang. He hated them with every fiber of his being. He hated himself for doing what they said. He hated himself for hurting his family. He hated himself for jumping through that damned portal in the first place. </p>
<p>    He missed Raph. He missed Donnie. He missed Leo. And oh, how much he missed his Dad.</p>
<p>    Mikey's tears grew, and he began to sob quietly, pushing his face into fabric harsher as he desperately prayed that he was quieter than he thought he was being. All he wanted to do was go home, back to his room and his lair with his family. The unfamiliarity of this lair cut sharp into his mind and made him miss home even more. He couldn't even leave his counterpart's room for privacy to cry—he didn't know where anything was, and knowing him, chances were he'd accidentally walk into this Splinter's room or something. Mikey didn't think he could deal with seeing him right now (or anybody for that matter). He just wanted to be alone, and cry in shame in peace.</p>
<p>    "Mikey?"</p>
<p>    Mikey froze, looking up in quiet surprise. The other Michelangelo had woken up, rubbing his eyes and pushing himself into a sitting position with a groan. </p>
<p>    "Sorry," The younger Mikey mumbled, "Didn't mean to wake you."</p>
<p>    "It's all cool, lil dude," The Mikey of this world yawned, leaning over to turn on his lamp. Mikey blinked at the sudden change in light, and Michelangelo narrowed his eyes at him. "Are you okay?"</p>
<p>    "Mhmm," Mikey replied. His counterpart groaned, grabbing his mask off his nightstand and tying it on his head. He looked at him knowingly.</p>
<p>    "Come on dude," He said, "You can't lie to me, I am you. What's up?"</p>
<p>    Mikey sighed, still hugging the pillow to his chest, but a little lower than before. He hadn't taken off his mask in the first place, wary that something would happen when he was asleep and he'd need to jump up in battle. Even his belt was still on him, just in case.</p>
<p>    "Just... you know, everything that's gone on," He said, vaguely, "It's just a lot to handle..."</p>
<p>    Michelangelo paused, then nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it is a lot, but at least you're back. That's good, right? I know April's been worrying about you a lot."</p>
<p>    Guilt flooded over Mikey again, and his counterpart noticed immediately. He began rambling.</p>
<p>    "I didn't mean that was your fault, dude," He said quickly, "It's not, I just meant... She cares about you a lot, ya know? She was just worried. She talked about you and your brothers a lot. You should've seen her face once we got you back. She was so excited and happy."</p>
<p>    Mikey let himself smile a little at that, "Yeah... She would be, wouldn't she?"</p>
<p>    This world's Mikey paused for a few more moments again, blinking several times as though still trying to wake himself up, or maybe to remember something. Or maybe both.</p>
<p>    "She's still worried, actually..." He said, slowly, and Mikey instantly recognized the look he had on his face. He was good at reading people, and apparently knowing what his counterpart was thinking was no exception—someone had asked him to say something, hadn't he?</p>
<p>    "She's still worried about Raph and Donnie and Leo?" Mikey asked. Michelangelo nodded, then shook his head.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, I mean no. Well, she is, but that wasn't what I was talking about." He shrugged. "She says it felt like you were, like, ignoring her or something earlier today. My brothers said the same thing." He paused, staring at his younger self with a pout on his lip, "You're not uh, mad at them or something, are you?"</p>
<p>    "What?" Mikey's eyes went wide, "Of course not! They all saved me! Why would I be mad at them?!"</p>
<p>    "I don't know," Michelangelo said quickly, "I didn't think so either, but they were a little worried about that."</p>
<p>    "I'm not mad at them," Mikey repeated, looking down, "I didn't mean to worry them either."</p>
<p>    It was silent for several long moments, and Mikey internally cringed at himself. Why was he so uncomfortable and nervous? He never felt like this, even in new places. He was loud and comfortable and happy. He was friendly and close to everyone, and he adored talking to new people. This stupid dimension was messing his head up, and he wasn't going to be able to help his brothers like this.</p>
<p>    He heard a movement, and glanced up to see this world's Mikey had gotten out of bed. He sat down besides him, close enough to offer comfort, but not so close that he was invading his personal space. Michelangelo frowned.</p>
<p>    "Do you know why you're avoiding them?" He asked. Mikey hesitated. </p>
<p>    Did he know why he was avoiding this world's Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael? On some level, yes. For the most part, Mikey had also been avoiding thinking about it, trying to distract himself with his imagination and home and when neither of those worked, his own guilt. But Mikey was no idiot, and he was always good with emotions. Dr. Feelings unfortunately understood himself for the most part, too, as much as Mikey wanted to be ignorant sometimes. He sighed.</p>
<p>    "They're..." He paused, closing his eyes as he spoke, "Your brothers... they're not mine, obviously, and they're so different from my Leo, Donnie, and Raph. But they're also.... they also remind me of them."</p>
<p>    "Well, duh dude, they are kinda them," Michelangelo replied, using a joking tone that was somehow still gentle at the same time. "Your April's told them all how different how they are from your brothers though. I think I'm like, the only one she doesn't try and remind on a daily basis."</p>
<p>    "They're so different," Mikey said, smiling slightly, "Donnie's nicer, Leo's quieter, and Raph's meaner... and smaller."</p>
<p>    "Ha! Don't let him hear you say that. He'll chase you down."</p>
<p>    They both laughed at this, keeping their voice low to avoid waking anyone else. The walls may be concrete, but the doors weren't, and voices echoed easily through the empty halls. Better to stay quiet... Everyone needed their sleep. </p>
<p>    The laughter trailed off, and Mikey sighed. He wiped at his eyes, and smiled sadly, so much emotion on such a small face.</p>
<p>    "They're so different that it hurts but... they're also just similar enough that they remind me of my brothers, and that's why I was kind of... you know, avoiding them... I don't wanna think about them when they're all still trapped with the Kraang. Kinda mean of me, huh?"</p>
<p>    "Nah, they'll totally understand." His older self paused, frowning, "Okay, Raph and Leo might not 'understand', but they'll try and respect it, you know? Might take them a bit to actually get it but they'll try." </p>
<p>    "My Donnie's like that too, and sometimes Leo. They don't understand it but they try and respect it anyways."</p>
<p>    Michelangelo nodded, then tilted his head slightly in question, scrunching up one side of his face in confusion. "Hey, wait a second. Why are you avoiding April then too?"</p>
<p>    Mikey hesitated. Memories flashed through his mind, ones that he could remember seeing and feeling, but still felt a disconnect from. April running after him, fighting because she had to, attacking him because he was attacking her... It was like watching a video, one he had no choice in viewing, but knew as well as the back of his hand. Her cry of pain as his weapon slashed across her face rang through his mind like an echo. Even worse than that pained cry was the sound of his own laughter in response. It made him sick.</p>
<p>    He stared at the floor with a clenched jaw as he whispered his response.</p>
<p>    "I hurt her so much..."</p>
<p>    Michelangelo didn't say anything at first, and Mikey worried he would agree. But then he spoke, and it was as calm as ever.</p>
<p>    "No you didn't," His counterpart said casually, waving the thought away as though it were just an annoying bug, "That was the Kraang. She knows it too."</p>
<p class="">    "It was still me!" Mikey insisted, voice breaking, "And I just... it's all I can think about when I see her... that I did that." He spun around suddenly, grabbing his older counterpart by the shoulders, fingers digging into his arms in a painful death grip that Michelangelo didn't even flinch at. Face twisting into one of anguish, Mikey cried out desperately.</p>
<p class="">    "I didn't want to do any of that! I never wanted to hurt her or you or your brothers and I never wanted to do what they said, I promise! I hated it, every second of it! I didn't want to attack April or you like that and I just want to go home and I want my brothers and I just want Dad!"</p>
<p>    Mikey collapsed into his older self's shoulder and held on tightly, and sobbed for what felt like the millionth time today. Michelangelo seemed to freeze at first, unused to being the older one providing comfort, but quickly relaxed and hugged him back just as tightly. He let him cry in silence for several long moments.</p>
<p>    "If you avoid my brothers," Little Mikey heard his counterpart say, "It's gonna be harder for them to get yours back, I think. Leo is all about his plans and stuff and you were on the inside. You can help him, you know, if you wanna. You know things we don't."</p>
<p>    "Mhm," Mikey's voice was muffled, and he reluctantly pulled himself from the hug. This world's Mikey was grinning goofily, and Mikey finally understood what it was like to be on the other end of the unrelenting positivity he so often gave to his family. This was how much it helped and was needed, huh? He felt better, more hopeful already.</p>
<p>    "Yeah... You're right."</p>
<p>    "Good!" Michelangelo stood up, smiling widely, "'Cause I don't wanna listen to Leo's planning rants, he likes to think aloud sometimes and it gets confusing and it's boring to listen to. Better you than me."</p>
<p>    Little Mikey giggled, "Raph does that too, but he overexplains things with all his stuff, assumes we don't know anything... like what a week was. I think Leo thinks it's funny though and sometimes just pretends not to get it to see how far he'll overexplain things."</p>
<p>    His counterpart's blue eyes lit up, "Dude, I gotta try that with my bros."</p>
<p>    "I wanna see."</p>
<p class="">    "You can help!" Michelangelo promised, then glanced at the clock and frowned, "Leo's gonna be up soon for training, and will probably want us to be up too... Wanna go make breakfast for everyone?"</p>
<p>    Mikey nodded quickly, the perfect distraction. "Yeah!"</p>
<p>    "Awesome," His counterpart stood up, stretched and started to walk towards the door, a carefree jump in his step. "Maybe we can make pizza shakes or something, or pizza pancakes."</p>
<p>    Mikey froze, trying to stop himself from gagging as he stared at the other Mikey in complete disbelief. To his horror, his alternate self looked completely serious. He stared at him incredulously, hoping that he heard him wrong.</p>
<p class="">    "We're making <em>what now</em>?"</p>
<p class="">***</p>
<p class="">    Watching the movie ended up being one of the most uncomfortable experiences of April's life, and she had gone through some awful things in her short sixteen years—April <em>knew </em>discomfort. </p>
<p class="">    Irma just wouldn't stop staring at her. Every few moments, April could feel her sharp gaze on her, watching her and staring right into her soul. She tried her best to ignore it, she really did! But it was hard when Irma hardly even seemed to make an effort to hide it. Even Casey had given her a few harsh looks as a brief defense to his "cousin", but Irma didn't seem to care. She just kept staring, and April barely remembered anything of the movie at all.</p>
<p class="">    The only one who seemed not to notice was this world's April, who just continued watching the movie intently. April was a kind girl, she really was, but she also deeply wanted to yell at her counterpart for befriending such a weirdo.</p>
<p class="">    She deeply regretted her decision to give Irma a chance. </p>
<p class="">    So with the movie and day completely ruined, April just couldn't wait to get out of there and back to the lair. Irma didn't know about the turtles, and April thanked whatever being was out there for this—dealing her in public was hard enough, but April might just scream if she had to deal with the staring inside the lair too of all places. She just wanted to get back there.</p>
<p class="">    But of course, fate had other plans. </p>
<p class="">    "Ugh, I'm hungry," This world's April muttered, looking around at her group, "Wanna catch something to eat before we head home? We still have about an hour before we gotta get back."</p>
<p class="">    Irma had accepted immediately, Casey nodded a casual agreement soon after. April groaned internally, but decided to come nonetheless. She still wasn't too familiar with this city, the streets and buildings laid out an entirely different way than back home, and she didn't want to get stuck out there alone with so much evil lurking.</p>
<p class="">    They eventually decided to go to a little vegetarian shop that this world's April had just insisted was worth the price (Casey was horrified, of course, but agreed after Irma called him a wimp). It wasn't bad, but April knew she would enjoy it so much more if the strange girl wasn't there. She was surely going to have a talk with her counterpart the second they got away.</p>
<p class="">    Why Irma wanted to make small talk with her was beyond her realm of understanding.</p>
<p class="">    "So, April," Irma said as the four found their seats. She stirred her tea with her straw, neglecting to drink it in favor of keeping an eye on April. "How do you like New York?"</p>
<p class="">    "It's fine." April took a sip of her lemonade, and kept her answers short. Irma tilted her head to one side.</p>
<p class="">    "Too different from your home for you to feel comfortable?"</p>
<p class="">"Uh," April paused, "what?"</p>
<p class="">    "Do you feel out of place?"</p>
<p class="">    April didn't reply. She met Irma's gaze, having what looked like to an outsider some kind of impromptu staring contest. Irma smiled slightly, eyes unmoving and so straightforward it wasn't natural. It was barely even human. </p>
<p class="">    Then Irma sat back, relaxing and turning the conversation back into the land of normalcy. "I mean, growing up in the country and coming here must be a real culture shock. Must be hard to get used to, I know I'd find it difficult."</p>
<p class="">    "Yeah, sure..." April muttered. Her instincts screamed louder to run.</p>
<p class="">    But her other self just picked up the conversation where they left off, Casey joining in, and Irma didn't ask anymore strange questions. April had to push the thought out of her mind that she knew something, because that was impossible. There were no shape shifting yokai here, and Irma was this world's April's friend, and maybe Casey's too. It was their world, where these kinds of interactions were normal. They had to be.</p>
<p class="">    She didn't speak for the rest of the meal. </p>
<p class="">    Twenty minutes later, it was finally over, and April was the first out of her seat. Glancing at an imaginary watch on her wrist, she laughed nervously.</p>
<p class="">    "Oh, look at the time!" She exclaimed, "It's getting late, we really need to be getting back, don't we guys?" Without waiting for an answer from her 'friend' and her 'cousin', she grabbed them by the upper arms and pulled them out of their seats, shoving them towards the door. She waved to Irma, "Great meeting you, hope we can do this again sometime!"</p>
<p class="">    "Wait, April-" This world's April started to say, but Casey interrupted her, clearly getting the message.</p>
<p class="">    "Nah, she's right Red, we gotta go." </p>
<p class="">    "Uh, okay then," Irma muttered, waving shortly back, still in her seat, "I'll see you around, I guess."</p>
<p class="">    And with that, they left, leaving her behind.</p>
<p class="">    And there, at the nearly empty table, Irma watched as the group walked away with a slight smile on her face. None of them would notice the grin, she knew, even if the newer April did glance back over her shoulder several times as she nearly ran away. That new April wouldn't be able to see her smiling anyways. She'd be looking at the wrong face.</p>
<p class="">    Turning on her communicator, she spoke softly into into it, a wicked gleam in her plastic eyes.</p>
<p class="">    "Tell the purple moron he can stop whining now. I found his precious April O'Neil."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Rise Mikey is gonna be Little Mikey because when I was little, I had an aunt with the same name as me and I became Little Meagan while she got Big Megan. So I decided to dub Rise Mikey as Little Mikey cuz of that.</p>
<p>Hope you enjoyed this chapter, comments are appreciated and I love you guys, see ya next week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Divide by Two, Divide by Two...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The time to go after Rise Raph has come. The mission can finally start.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm so sorry this was a day late!!! This month is busy, end of school and graduating and stuff like that, plus my life is just kinda insane as it is. But the chapter is out finally!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    Finding the hideout was the easy part. </p>
<p>    Little Mikey ended up remembering where a ton of Kraang bases were located at, a fair amount of which none of this world's turtles had known even existed. He hadn't been inside all of them, but he could still tell Donnie whether or not the ones he had been in had holding cells. This was a major advantage for their plans. </p>
<p>    With this information in mind, Donnie had been able to considerably narrow down the possible hideouts. It only took him a couple hours to have only five options left, and then he checked camera feeds around each area to see if any had gotten any "deliveries" lately, or had a truck that could fit a giant snapping turtle in the back of it enter the lot. It didn't take much longer than that for him to find out the other Raphael's location. One abandoned building on the far north side of town had a suspicious looking van pull in only an hour after their battle on the docks. Even better? Little Mikey even swore that that was the same building they held his brother in the last time he went savage. He <em>had</em> to be there.</p>
<p>    And with that final unknown variable solved for, they were ready for the mission.</p>
<p>    The team left consisted of all four of the brothers, plus their new Mikey, both Aprils, and Casey. A big group, a size that Leo didn't particularly like, but that was okay. His plan would require splitting into two groups later on anyways... With any luck, the number would work in their favor then, when each group had enough people to work with.</p>
<p>    They landed two rooftops away from the base not long after leaving the lair. Tall and gray with a few boarded up and broken windows, it looked like a completely normal abandoned building from the outside—one that they wouldn't have spared a second glance if they hadn't known the truth. This was where they temporarily kept their prisoners before they could transport them out of New York City, along with a few unknown functions that New Mikey had mentioned but hadn't known the details of. Hidden inside and locked away, this was where they would find the other Raphael.</p>
<p>    "Last time he got like this, they had Raph stay in one place and took me to him," Little Mikey said, eyes locked on the hideout. He sighed, shaking his head, "But that was because I was already close by. I don't know where Donnie or Leo are, but they could be pretty far. What if they aren't gonna take him to them at all?"</p>
<p>    "They would have to," Donnie countered, "Your Raph is useless to the Kraang in the state you're describing. Considering all the trouble they went through in the first place to get him, I doubt they're going to just give up on him because you're gone."</p>
<p>    "Yeah, that makes sense... I guess you're right."</p>
<p>    "Of course I am," Donnie replied as he pulled out a large, folded up piece of paper and knelt on the ground. He spread it out over the concrete, waving everyone over to crowd around him as he began to point out various points on the map.</p>
<p>    "This building was constructed in 1982, and was last in real use in the early 2000s before some partnership bought it, one I've found has often been associated with the Kraang. This is a layout of the building from right before they bought it.  I'm willing to bet these old floorplans have been updated since then, but it should at least give us a starting point in what we're looking for."</p>
<p>    Leo peered over New April's shoulder at the paper, frowning, before an idea popped into his head.</p>
<p>    "Little Mikey, do you think you can see if you can remember anything about what the inside looks like? Can you label anything on the map?"</p>
<p>    The New Mikey pursed his lips, looking up and off to the side in deep thought, glancing back to the paper ever so often. "Oh!" he shouted, snapping his fingers and grinning. "Yep, I can!"</p>
<p>    He pointed to a room near the top of the building, about two stories away from the rooftop. "That's where I went first when they called me in. I was guarding the Kraang for something and they cancelled that mission in the middle of it, then told me what was up with Raph. That room I went in... I think it was some kind of lab. There were a ton of freaky computers and stuff."</p>
<p>    "If they contacted you from there and you saw a bunch of computers, I'm willing to bet that's the base's communication center," Donnie said, "That's good! I'll bet I can hack into the Kraang's system from there and figure more out about the portals and your universe's location. Maybe with that I can reopen my old plan of getting reinforcements from your dimension... My alternate self shouldn't be able to ruin it if I go in through the Kraang's computers this time."</p>
<p>    "What about the cell where they kept your brother?" Raph suddenly cut in, "Where was that?"</p>
<p>    "A lot lower... Near the bottom of the building, but I don't..." Little Mikey hesitated, face downcast as he shook his head, "I went down a lot of floors, but I don't remember exactly where. I'm sorry."</p>
<p>    "That's fine, we'll work with what we have," The April of this universe said, blue eyes bright and hopeful. "We'll find him, easy. Don't worry, Mikey."</p>
<p>    "But I might be able to figure it out once I'm inside." Little Mikey perked up. "I'm better with figuring those things out in person! It being on paper throws me off, but I think I can lead the way inside. We can get him like that."</p>
<p>    Little Mikey grinned, and the Michelangelo of this universe threw an arm over his shoulders and beamed. "Yeah we will! This'll totally work. We're just awesome like that, dudes. We'll have the other Raph out in no time!"</p>
<p>    Leonardo glanced down at his t-phone. 10:18 P.M., it read, which was good. They had tons of time to get in, complete their mission, and get out before sunrise, and hopefully they would return home this time with one more member added to their growing team. He still wasn't sure how they planned on actually getting the much larger and stronger Raphael home, and that made Leo anxious. he was the planning guy. When things weren't fully thought out, his brain swirled and refused to calm down until after all the details were figured out, even if he was excellent at pretending otherwise. There were so many unknowns...</p>
<p>    But he had a big team full of very capable people, and two determined individuals who would rather give up their lives than leave the other Raph behind again. They would figure something out soon. He just had to give them time to think—one part of the plan at a time. Leo took a deep breath, and then stood on the ledge of the building and turned to face the group.</p>
<p>    "Okay everyone, listen up," He announced, "We have three main goals here. First, Donnie needs to get into the Kraang's databases and figure out what he needs to know. Second, we gotta get the other Raphael back, and third, we need to figure out where they have me and Donnie's other selves at.</p>
<p>    "So here's the plan: We're going to get inside through the roof, and then we'll split into two groups. Donnie, you're going to take the Aprils and Casey as backup and go do your thing with the computers. Me, Raph, and the Mikeys are gonna go find the other Leo and Donnie and get the other Raph back."</p>
<p>    "You're splitting us up?" New April exclaimed. "Already? Are we sure that's a good idea?"</p>
<p>    "If we want to get in and out without being seen, yes," Leo nodded. "This group is already too big as it is. It'll be safer to travel in smaller teams, since stealth is essential on this mission."</p>
<p>    "But-"</p>
<p>    Casey groaned in exasperation. "Can we just get on with this already? Kick Kraang butt and be careful about it, we get the plan dude! Let's just go in already!"</p>
<p>    "I'm with Casey on this one," Raph said, spinning his sai around with a wicked grin on his lips, "Let's go punch some Kraang. And get another rematch in with myself, that'll be fun. We beat him last time and we'll beat him again this one too."</p>
<p>    The whole team was pulsing with energy, excitement, and anxiety for the coming battle, their intense emotions all mixing together and creating a nearly explosive atmosphere. Raph and Casey were right; it was time to get in and start the battle. The time for preparing was over. Leo's face set into a grim but determined expression, and he nodded firmly. </p>
<p class="">    The plan was set into motion.</p>
<p class="">    The eight of them raced across the rooftops and reached the Kraang building with ease, and getting inside from there was relatively simple. The aliens had a few bots out for lookout, but it was clear that this building's main defense was its inconspicuousness. A slice through the chest and a kick off the roof got rid of the two guard bots problem, and the group slipped inside without anymore trouble.</p>
<p class="">    Little Mikey's eyes lit up in recognition the second they got inside. He scanned the halls for a moment before he spun around to address the rest of the group.</p>
<p class="">    "This <em>was</em> where they took me the first time! I was right, I can get to Raph's cell from here. I know where it is!"</p>
<p class="">    Leo nodded, then turned to his younger brother.</p>
<p class="">    "Donnie? Are you guys good to get to the computers from here?"</p>
<p class="">    "The communication center is just across that hall and a couple levels down. We can find it easily." Donnie nodded firmly. "You guys go get the other Raph. The Aprils, Casey, and I will deal with this."</p>
<p class="">    Donnie was confident, and that was all Leo could ask for. They would be okay. The leader didn't spare a second glance behind him as the team split in two and he led his half away; he trusted Donnie, and knew if he said they'd be alright, they would be.</p>
<p class="">    And if they weren't? Well, wouldn't be the first mission abandoned for a rescue. </p>
<p class="">    With Donnie and his group out of sight, Leo could begin to focus on their half of the plan. Namely, getting to the other Raph before he was sent off.</p>
<p class="">    "Other Mikey!" He called out, while his own Michelangelo took out a stray Kraang droid off at the edge of the hall, "You still know the way, right?"</p>
<p class="">    "Yup!" Came the box turtles' excited reply. Leo let the youngest turtle run ahead of their group, glancing left and right at the end of the hall before confidently running down the right. Their Mikey caught up with him quickly, leaving Raph and Leo to follow behind them. Running, running, a bot take down here and there, more running... Raph glanced towards Leo.</p>
<p class="">    "You sure he's good to lead the way?" The red turtle asked doubtfully, stabbing a Kraang droid through the head as it came out of a side room, "I mean, it's <em>Mikey</em>. I don't wanna get lost in here."</p>
<p class="">    "He's the only one who has actually been inside here, Raph," Leo rolled his eyes. "And this is his brother. He's not going to mess this up, not when his Raph's life is on the line. Our Mikey always pulls through in really bad situations like that too. We trust Mikey to save us, don't we?"</p>
<p class="">    "Well..."</p>
<p class="">    "<em>Raph</em>."</p>
<p class="">    "Okay, fine, yeah," Raph grumbled, "Tell him I said that though and I'll hand you over to the Kraang myself, you hear me? I'm serious. Don't do it."</p>
<p class="">    Leo laughed and the team quickly reverted to silence aside from the occasional "<em>take that!</em>", "<em>bet you didn't see that coming, huh?</em>" or even "<em>cowabunga!</em>". It was clear as they made their way through that this building was neglected compared to their bigger bases, such as TCRI, and the security systems were clearly lacking. Were they really not that concerned about them coming for the other Raph?</p>
<p class="">    The four ducked through some side doors and made their way down the stairs. Though Little Mikey hadn't been too sure of which floor the cell was on on the paper, he remembered the movements with ease, and the second they got to the 13th floor he stopped and pointed. </p>
<p class="">    "This is it."</p>
<p class="">    This level was significantly more populated than most of the upper ones they passed. Half a dozen Kraang stood on guard in front of various doors, weapons drawn and ready. A blinking red dot alerted Leo to a camera in one corner, an automated laser for security hooked up right besides it. The mission took a turn for the worse.</p>
<p class="">    With three sets of eyes gone white and another narrowed in determination, they made their way through the bright halls up in the rafters. </p>
<p class="">    "At the end of this hallway, we gotta go right," Little Mikey whispered hesitantly, crouching close to the other three. "There's a door to their prison jail thing down there. His cell was inside."</p>
<p class="">    They continued on quietly, and the connecting hallway to the right thankfully had a few less Kraang than the previous. While Leo, Mikey, and Little Mikey stayed up near the ceiling, Raphael jumped down and took out the three monitoring aliens, and then had the door open seconds later with his patented '<em>stab it until it does what you want</em>' technique. Not the best way to make an entrance, but Leo was there to take out the two extra Kraang he attracted with the noise, and so it all worked out fine after all.</p>
<p class="">    The four made their way in.</p>
<p class="">    "Raph? Raph!" The younger Mikey called out the second they were all inside, running ahead of the group and spinning in a circle, examining the whole room. "Are you in here?"</p>
<p class="">    There were plenty of holding cells alright; the new Mikey was right about that. But they were all empty. </p>
<p class="">    The other world's Raphael wasn't here.</p>
<p class="">    Little Mikey's jaw was clenched tightly, eyes scanning across the whole area in case he somehow missed a giant snapping turtle hiding in the area. One by one, he looked into each cell. Most were dusty and unused, with old, questionable red and brown stains scattered on the walls and floors. But aside from that, none of them looked like they had been occupied in years.</p>
<p class="">    Well, all except one.</p>
<p class="">    "Uh, little me," This world's Mikey hesitantly called, watching as his alternate self gripped the bars on one particular cell. His eyes were locked on an empty bed inside. It wasn't hard to tell why, not with the thin sheets torn by spikes and the large indent of a shell in the center of the mattress. The metal of the cot was welded to the floor, keeping any occupants from throwing it across the room in a fit of rage. There was a small mirror in the room too, glass shattered and broken, as though someone had punched it over and over again. The older Mikey bit his lip, hand hovering over his counterpart's shoulder, unsure if he should try and offer comfort just yet. "I don't think he's here..."</p>
<p class="">    Clearly not reading the room's mood, this world's Raph groaned.</p>
<p class="">    "Well that's just great," He sarcastically spat, crossing his arms over his chest, "What, so we take all this effort to get inside, and the dude was never even here? Awesome." </p>
<p class="">    "No, he had to have been here recently," Leo argued, staring at the cot, and then at the broken mirror. He lowered his voice, glancing at the younger Mikey and backing away so he wouldn't hear. He leaned over and whispered to Raph quietly.</p>
<p class="">    "Look at the glass. There's blood on it, and it's not dried. He must've punched it, and recently."</p>
<p class="">    Raph blinked, and clenched his jaw. Shaking his head, he spoke slowly. </p>
<p class="">    "Okay well, that's better than never being here at all, I guess. Do you think they already took him to his Leo or Donnie?"</p>
<p class="">    "No, he's still here," Little Mikey spoke up suddenly, still facing the cell. "I don't know how, but I just... I <em>know</em> he's still here. He's not with them yet. We can still find him!"</p>
<p class="">    His grip tightened on the bars, knuckles turning white. "<em>He has to be</em>."</p>
<p class="">    Leo glanced over to his brother Michelangelo in a shared moment of sympathy for the younger turtle, and Raph spoke up.</p>
<p class="">    "Just 'knowing' isn't gonna help us here. We need answers, and we ain't getting anywhere just standing around here. We need to-"</p>
<p class="">    The sound of robotic movements made Raph freeze, and the four glanced back at the door just in time to see two droids coming in, and coming quickly. Raph grabbed Little Mikey by the wrist and jumped up to the ceiling, holding them both up with one hand on a metal beam until the other Mikey found his grip. Leo and his youngest brother had found their own hiding spot across the room, standing just inside one of the open cells behind a narrow sliver of wall.</p>
<p class="">    They realized with a mental sigh of relief that the droids hadn't noticed them. Whatever reason they were inside the prison room had nothing to do with their presence, and they hadn't been noticed yet. The four stayed silent.</p>
<p class="">    "Kraang," One of the droids spoke, addressing the other, "Kraang orders Kraang to clean up that which is known as the glass left behind by the known as 'Raphael'."</p>
<p class="">    Well, that confirmed it. At least they knew with certainty it was him now.</p>
<p class="">    The other Kraang looked down dejectedly, making a strange sound between a human sigh and a disapproving robotic hum. "Kraang requests to know why Kraang cannot do the action ordered of Kraang instead."</p>
<p class="">    "Okay, this is getting annoying," Raph muttered quietly to himself. He reached behind his back, pulling out a sai and getting ready to jump down. It was only by chance that he caught the look on Leo's face across the room, threatening and demanding he stay put. Reluctantly, he did.</p>
<p class="">    "Kraang has been called to help Kraang prepare that which is known as the portal for transport of the turtle to that which is known as the place where he must go, and so that place is the place where Kraang is to go," The other Kraang replied, referring to himself, and then continuing as he pointed at his partner, "So Kraang will do as Kraang is told."</p>
<p class="">    The lecturing Kraang turned around, and began to walk out of the room. Raph's eyes went wide. They were transporting his other self through a portal to one of his brothers, and that Kraang was going to be involved. They couldn't let him just go.</p>
<p class="">    Raphael glanced across the room again to Leo, who was staring determinedly at the droid about to leave the room. The blue turtle sent Raph a knowing look, and by now, Raph knew his brother's plans well enough to tell what he was suggesting: another split up. One team to follow the Kraang to find the other Donnie and Leo, and the other team to go get the other Raphael.</p>
<p class="">    Fortunately for all involved, he had no reason to argue. He nodded to Leo, and watched as both his brothers slipped silently out of the room, right behind the Kraang. Raph glanced over to the one turtle who stayed, who he would now be working with. Little Mikey frowned slightly and stared right back.</p>
<p class="">    "Alright," Raph muttered, spinning his sai around and staring at the one remaining Kraang droid, who was still unaware of their presence. He looked towards Little Mikey.</p>
<p class="">    "Guess it's just us. Ready to go get your brother back?"</p>
<p class="">    New Mikey nodded immediately, grinning in determination. Raph laughed, completely unconcerned when the Kraang noticed, looking up in surprise. It didn't really matter whether or not it heard anymore, not when he was in charge and got to decide what to do.</p>
<p class="">    He jumped down and slammed his sai directly into the Kraang droids chest before it even had a moment to cry for help. Little Mikey landed besides him seconds later, and Raph sent him a grin.</p>
<p class="">    "Alright, let's go get your brother back."</p>
<p class="">***</p>
<p class="">    The communication center was brilliant. Huge, shining, and buzzing with the hum of machines, this room was nothing like the neglected halls they had passed getting here. There was no dust and no dirt; along with temporary holding cells, the Kraang must have used this building as an active technological center. It was a beautiful set up, and Donnie was in love instantly.</p>
<p class="">    "This place is extraordinary!" The purple turtle exclaimed, turning around to scan the room. He let his eyes drift across each wide screen and glowing touchpad in admiration, breathing out an adoring sigh. "Look at it, it's gorgeous!"</p>
<p class="">    "Should we leave you and the computers alone for a moment, Don?" Casey called, shooting a glare his way as he slammed his hockey stick into a droid, knocking its head clean off. He watched as the Kraang inside popped out of its chest and scurried away, and he huffed out a frustrated breath. "Or are you gonna stop gawking at it and actually help us out here?"</p>
<p class="">    Donnie rolled his eyes, spinning his bo staff and whacking another Kraang out, while the New April laughed and their more familiar April took out another. In Donnie's defense, the four of them had cleared out most of the room already, and he had made sure only to get distracted once he knew there weren't even half a dozen left standing. He wasn't as unreliable as Casey made him sound, and he hoped the look he was sending him sent that message through. </p>
<p class="">    Their April took out the last Kraang with a quick fling of her tessen, and grinned playfully. "Oh, give him a moment, Casey."</p>
<p class="">    "I'm pretty sure it's legally required for all Donnies to act like that or something," New April agreed, swinging her new bat around and nodding approvingly. She had already thanked Casey once for letting her borrow it during their battle on the docks, and that night when she tried to return it he had told her she could keep it. While it could never fit into her hand and swing as perfectly as hers did, she wasn't going to complain. It worked well enough for her. </p>
<p class="">    Especially when her real one was left behind in some old Kraang building that first night here. She was doubtful she'd ever get that one back.</p>
<p class="">    A half destroyed Kraang droid body started to buzz to life near her feet, head lifting as it tried to crawl away. She swung the wooden bat down onto it without hesitation. No need to allow it to bring in reinforcements, after all. Casey sent her a thumbs up.</p>
<p class="">    "There's so much here," Donnie muttered, pulling their attention back to him. He approached one of the black and pink glowing touchscreens carefully, reaching out a hesitant finger to tap it. He grinned in pure delight as it flickered to life. "This is even better than what they had at TCRI! They're connected to even more of their files here... I'm betting this is more of a research and intelligence base. There's so much to learn here!"</p>
<p class="">    "A prison and a research base?" Their April shuttered, "That can't be good."</p>
<p class="">    "Can you find out the coordinates or whatever to my world through there?" Other April asked quickly, leaning around him to try and get a better look at the screen. "Can you make a portal back home?"</p>
<p class="">    "I can try," Donnie promised, "I don't know if I'll actually be able to, but I'm definitely going to try. There's bound to be information on that in here."</p>
<p class="">    "You should totally try and find other me in their world," Casey said. "You guys are all lame! Find him, I bet he's awesome."</p>
<p class="">    "How on Earth do you expect me to find that out?" Donnie demanded. He threw his arms out in a wide gesture. "There's billions of people there! What I meant was I can find out what the Kraang have on their universe. You know, the locations and coordinates and things like that. Unless the Kraang have a specific file on you and your counterpart personally, there's no way I can figure that out from here."</p>
<p class="">    "Why do you want a counterpart so badly anyways, Casey?" Their April asked, shaking her head. "Isn't this enough as it is?"</p>
<p class="">    "Easy for you to say, you have another you here!" Casey shouted, pointing towards New April, "I wanna meet myself! That would be totally metal, yo, and it's completely unfair I don't have one here! I think-"</p>
<p class="">    Donnie covered Casey's mouth without a warning, and he shouted indignantly, muffled by his hand. He stopped struggling when he saw five Kraang walk down the hall just outside the door, laser guns loaded and humming with power The four stayed quiet. Fortunately for all of them, the Kraang continued on, and none of them entered or checked the room. Donnie breathed out a sigh of relief. They weren't caught yet, but just to be safe he decided to stay still for a moment longer. Or, he did, until something made him shriek and shove Casey away as hard as he could. He stared at the grinning teen in disbelief.</p>
<p class="">    "Did you just lick my hand?!"</p>
<p class="">    "You weren't letting go!"</p>
<p class="">    "That is extremely unsanitary, and downright gross! What is wrong with you?! Don't do that again!"</p>
<p class="">    "Don't try and muffle my awesomeness like that again and I won't!"</p>
<p class="">    "You were going to alert the Kraang we were here!"</p>
<p class="">    "We could've taken them easily! They're all-"</p>
<p class="">    "Children, children," Their April interrupted, shoving herself in between them and acting as a barrier, a hand on each of their chests, "Stop it! Now isn't the time. Don't we have more important things to focus on?"</p>
<p class="">    Donnie clenched his jaw, eyes locked angrily on Casey, but sighed in defeat. April was right, whether he liked it or not. He turned back to the computer.</p>
<p class="">    "I can get in here, but I'll need time. We're gonna need a lookout."</p>
<p class="">    "Cool, Red and I are on it." Casey volunteered, and Donnie spun around. He jabbed a finger angrily into his chest.</p>
<p class="">    "No way, you're just going to goof off!" The turtle accused. "This isn't a lookout just to give you something to do, or a cool way to impress April. There are Kraang everywhere in here and I actually need people focused to keep this room guarded so I have time to find out what I need to find out!"</p>
<p class="">    New April grinned, though Donnie didn't immediately realize why. She spoke.</p>
<p class="">    "Okay, cool, then we'll be on lookout." New April said, throwing an arm around her counterpart. The April of this world now shared a similar grin, for some reason neither of the boys had figured out quite yet.</p>
<p class="">    "Okay, that works for me," Donnie shrugged. He trusted them to keep watch—both Aprils were responsible and could easily take on a couple Kraang if need be. Neither would be loud and goof off like Casey would, not in such a serious situation. This still didn't explain the mischievous grins on their faces.</p>
<p class="">    "And," New April's dark eyes glimmered with mischief, "Casey can stay in here and help you."</p>
<p class="">    Donnie realized his mistake.</p>
<p class="">    "Wait, I changed my mind-"</p>
<p class="">    "Have fun, boys!" New April called, bat swung over her shoulder and her other hand in her pocket. "We'll let you know if we see anything. Now, get to work!"</p>
<p class="">    The April of this world laughed, and followed her out, leaving Casey and Donnie to glare daggers at each other and regret everything. He did this to himself, as much as Donnie hated to admit it, and Casey was surely just as upset. The turtle groaned.</p>
<p class="">    "Whatever..." He muttered, turning back to the screen and swiping to begin to look over the files. "Let's just get this over with..."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading! Comments are appreciated, and if you're bored come scream at me on tumblr @nostalgiaruinedme. Answering asks is fun.<br/>See you guys next week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Discover</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>2012 Raph and Rise Mikey have a discussion, Casey and Donnie find out some things, and Mikey and Leo are having a whole situation of their own.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ok so disclaimer before comments start freaking out: This fic will ONLY feature characters from 2012 and 2018. I'm not bringing in other incarnations of the turtles or other universes. This chapter does include a little cameo/reference thing to a few others and establishes other universes do exist as alternate dimensions, but I'm not gonna actually bring them in, ok? Just putting that out there because I've gotten a few comments, messages, and asks with people thinking I'm gonna bring in more turtles for real... Listen, 2 sets is crazy enough as it is 😭 <br/>ANYWAYS enjoy this chapter please!!! If anything doesn't make sense I blame the fact that I'm writing this while sick and feel like literal death rn, sorry- Hope you enjoy it though!<br/>As always, comments and kudos are appreciated. Love you guys!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    This world's Raphael was certainly something.</p>
<p>    Little Mikey knew this already, of course—the Kraang had given him and his brothers a quick briefing on all of this world's turtles before they were sent out to fight. The briefing was quite biased (obviously) and filled with many insults, but it gave him a basic idea of their counterparts nonetheless. That, and Mikey had gotten to spend a night with all of them.</p>
<p>    Still, this was the first real interaction he had gotten with this alternate version of his brother yet. And it was in the battlefield to try to save his brother—what a great time to get to know one another, huh?</p>
<p>    "Come on, we gotta figure out where they're keepin' your brother," This world's Raphael said, interrupting Mikey's thoughts. Raph returned his sai to his belt, raising one brow at the box turtle as he did so, "Do you know if there's any other places they might be keeping him?"</p>
<p>    Mikey paused, frowning. Last time this happened, his brother Raph was in the cell that was behind him now, raging and screaming until he saw Mikey's face. The Kraang hadn't bothered to do much more than tranq and imprison him last time, so moving him this time felt... strange. There had to be a specific reason for it.</p>
<p>    Unfortunately, he didn't know what that reason could be, and he didn't know where else they could be holding him. However, he did know where they <em>wouldn't </em>be keeping him.</p>
<p>    "No, but none of the floors we've passed through had any cells," Mikey said, "I haven't been farther below though. He could be in the basement."</p>
<p>    "Oh, great, they're keeping him in a dungeon then," This world's Raph groaned, rolling his eyes. He waved Mikey over, and walked to the doorway, glancing out. "Let's get going then. Enough stealth though. Leo's gone and I wanna get some action in."</p>
<p>    Before Mikey could ask what exactly he meant, Raph rushed out of the door and launched himself right into a passing group of Kraang, shouting a variety of curses and battle cries. Mikey laughed, and jumped in to join him, kicking and tossing the droids to the side.</p>
<p>    Yet, his weapons remained firmly in their place on his belt, untouched.</p>
<p>    "Take that!" Mikey shouted, back flipping over one of the Kraang and grabbed them with his legs as he did so, locking onto their neck and tossing them across the room. He felt the whiz of air as one laser blast missed his arm by a mere inch, and ripped a squealing Kraang from its metal armor while Raph took out another. The fighting was constant and steady, their fighting easy to expect and return. </p>
<p>    Then Mikey felt the sharp prick on his shell. He yelped out, mostly out of surprise, then turned around to see the dart that had fallen to the ground. He was safe, since it had bounced off his hard shell instead of landing in his skin, but those were the same darts they had used days ago to take him the first time. They were trying to knock him out. He picked the dart up, eyes widening.</p>
<p>    They were trying to take him away, again.</p>
<p>    "Look out!" A shout from Raph pulled him from his thoughts, and he turned just in time to see another Kraang staring at him across from the room, tranquillizer aimed directly at him. He froze, a deer in the headlights.</p>
<p>
  <em>    No, not again, not again, he couldn't be taken again. Please, not again.</em>
</p>
<p>    Before the Kraang could pull the trigger, a sai landed itself directly through the skull. The gun fell to the ground with a loud clatter, and the alien inside scurried off to who knows where. Little Mikey watched as Raphael retrieved his sai, stomped over to him, and punched him harshly in the shoulder. Mikey glared.</p>
<p>    "Hey!"</p>
<p>    "Dude, what was that?!" Raphael demanded, "Why'd you freeze? They would've gotten you!"</p>
<p>    "I..." Mikey looked down, and then shook his head to clear his thoughts. What <em>was </em>that? He never froze, not like that. Not with Draxum, not with Big Mama, not with the Shredder... he never froze. But he had seen the gun aimed at him, the same image as his last memory before being controlled, and he couldn't think or move or <em>do anything</em>. "I don't know. I just-"</p>
<p>    Mikey stopped abruptly when another group of Kraang rounded the corner. He spun into action, launching himself forward and landed a fierce blow to one's chest, sending it tumbling back into two of his friends and knocking all three over. He heard a scoff come from the red turtle behind him.</p>
<p>    "Where was that ten seconds ago?!" Raph demanded, running past him and taking on another two droids. "Get your head in the game, seriously!"</p>
<p>    Mikey grimaced, glaring at him before rushing back into battle. He didn't bother providing a response.</p>
<p>    The battle continued on like that for about another thirty seconds, each taking out their own fair share of bots until they both realized they were just going to keep sending in reinforcements, and they weren't going to get anywhere like this. While Raph continued taking out the aliens one by one, Mikey looked around for an exit. His eyes locked on one when he found it.</p>
<p>    "Over there!" He exclaimed, pointing to an elevator across the hall once the ten or so Kraang were taken care of. Raph grunted an affirmative response, taking a second longer to rip the head from one of the fallen droids to shove into the scanner. The doors opened, and the two turtles rushed in. The doors closed behind them with a soft hiss... and it was quiet.</p>
<p>    Mikey looked down, brow furrowed as he lost himself in thought. Though he definitely could've been nicer about it, Mikey knew this new Raph was right—he shouldn't have froze, but he didn't even know why he had. Mikey was a good fighter and a quick thinker, his attacks just wild enough not to be expected while still being effective. It wasn't like him to freeze up, but he hadn't felt like himself since before being controlled either. Scolding himself mentally, Mikey clenched his jaw. He just wanted to feel like himself again, and get back to normal. Why couldn't he get back to normal?</p>
<p>    "Why aren't you using your weapon?"</p>
<p>    "Huh?" The question pulled him from his thoughts, and Mikey looked up to see Raph staring at him, expression unreadable. The red turtle simply repeated his question.</p>
<p>    "I've seen you fight before. You've nearly taken out my head and did knock Donnie over with them from a distance, and you could've easily done that with the Kraang just now," He said. He narrowed his eyes, and glanced down to where Mikey's chucks were, untouched on his belt. "So why haven't you touched them once since we've gotten in here?"</p>
<p>    Mikey's hand flew to the metal handles of his new nunchucks, familiar and foreign all at once. Though he hadn't had them long, he was a quick learner, and had gotten used to the strange weapons within hours of using them. He still remembered when the Kraang had handed them to him, stating that they were a delivery from his brother, and that was the first Mikey had heard of Donnie in nearly a week. The gift had provided him with immeasurable relief, as he had been worried about his brother's whereabouts even under the Kraang's spell. He was okay, and he was making more tech. Things were sort of normal.</p>
<p>    But staring at the shining silver and glowing, pink wires running through the nunchucks now, Mikey felt sick.</p>
<p>    "They're Kraang." He hesitantly said, "They feel... wrong to use. Donnie made them, but they're still- they're still <em>Kraang</em>, not us. It feels wrong somehow."</p>
<p>    It was silent for a few moments, and Mikey glanced up to the small screen at the top of the elevator door, slowly counting down the floors as they approached the lowest level. He didn't bother turning back to Raph, figuring that would be the end of the conversation. This Raphael didn't seem like the type to discuss things like this, and Mikey, for once, didn't want to anyways.</p>
<p>    One floor away now, and Raph spoke.</p>
<p>    "That shouldn't matter," He said, shaking his head, "A weapon's a weapon. If anything, using their own tech against them should be like a slap in the face to them. It isn't 'wrong'."</p>
<p>    Mikey blinked, then shook his head right back. "It still feels like it."</p>
<p>    "Well, it shouldn't." The elevator dinged, and Raph's lips twitched into a sly smirk. He returned his sai to their place on his belt, and he glanced over to Mikey, still grinning. "I'll show ya."</p>
<p>    Before Mikey could ask what he was planning, the elevator doors opened. Six heads turned towards them immediately, pink glowing eyes spread out across the dark hallway. A shiver ran down the box turtle's spine.</p>
<p>    Raphael ran out of the elevator, jumping and planting his foot into one's chest, knocking them onto the concrete floor with a loud clang. He reached down and ripped their blaster from their hands, jumping back and dodging another's shot, clutching the new weapon tightly. Mikey watched with wide eyes.</p>
<p>    "Hey Kraang!" Raph shouted, holding up the blaster with a wild gleam in his eyes. He grinned, aiming it with one finger on the trigger. "How about a face full of this?"</p>
<p>    He fired, knocking one of the droid's heads clean off before turning to the next two. The turtle jumped out of the way as they began to return fire, but with another spin and three more blasts, all of the droids were down and out. </p>
<p>    Swinging the blaster over one shoulder and turning back to Michelangelo, he grinned.</p>
<p>    "See? Ain't nothing wrong with using something they tried to hurt you with to get back at them. A weapon's a weapon, what matters is whose hands it's in." He said, and then hesitated, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand and looking off to the side. </p>
<p>    "But, uh, if the Kraangy look bothers you that much, I got spraypaint back at the lair. We can cover that up and make it orange or something, if that'll help. I'd wrap it in leather like our Mikey has his, but I don't think that's fireproof."</p>
<p>    Mikey's eyes widened, and he looked at the blaster in Raph's hands, before turning his gaze back onto his own weapon, staring at it in a new light. He'd still prefer his actual mystic weapon, or even the nunchucks his father had given him years ago, but maybe these weren't so bad either. What mattered was what they were used for—not who made them.</p>
<p>    Slowly, his expression shifted. Mikey beamed at Raph. He threw himself at the other turtle and hugged him tightly, burying his head into his shoulder. Raph froze, stiff as a rock.</p>
<p>    "Thank you." Mikey said softly, "A lot."</p>
<p>    "Uh, no problem?" Raph said, awkwardly patting the back of his shell. When Mikey didn't let go after a few moments, he slowly removed his arms from him, chucklingly nervously. "Okay, that's enough of that- We're not there yet."</p>
<p>    Mikey backed away, looking at his brother's alternate self and grinning playfully. He counted to three, and then asked his question.</p>
<p>    "Okay. Are we there now?"</p>
<p>    Raph blinked. "It's been 5 seconds."</p>
<p>    "So?"</p>
<p>    "No, we're not there yet," Raph rolled his eyes, then shifted the blaster back into both hands, ready to fire. "And by the way, the fixing up your chucks deal is off if you don't start using them now to help, alright? I ain't getting your brother back by myself. You gotta help."</p>
<p>    "Sounds good to me!" Mikey said, "And I-"</p>
<p>    A terrifying cross between a roar and a scream echoed down the halls, stopping both of them in their tracks. Pain, anger, and fear all mixed into the sound, and Mikey turned to Raph with wide eyes. He knew that sound all too well. Raph didn't need him to explain to know exactly what, or who, it was. He grimaced.</p>
<p>    "Well..." He muttered, looking out into the distance, "it looks like we found your brother."</p>
<p>    Mikey nodded, staring down the hall for several long seconds, anxiously trying to get himself ready to face his oldest brother. Dealing with savage Raph was hard enough... but this time, he wasn't even sure whether it'd be better or not to get him out of that state. Savage Raph seemed just as bad as mind controlled Raph. Mikey really didn't want to have to choose one over the other to deal with, because he knew they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. He took a deep breath. Might as well try and distract them one more time.</p>
<p>    "Hey, Raph?"</p>
<p>    Raphael glanced over to Little Mikey, raising one brow in question. Mikey grinned. </p>
<p>    "Are we there yet?"</p>
<p>    "No!"</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    "What's that button do?"</p>
<p>    "It deletes everything. Stop it."</p>
<p>    "What about that one?"</p>
<p>    "I don't know, probably blows up the place."</p>
<p>    "...Okay, and how about this one-"</p>
<p>    "Stop it, Jones!" Donnie exclaimed, turning around and harshly shoving Casey back, eyes flashing with rage.</p>
<p>    "How do you expect me to work and get what we need to know with you acting like this?! You're gonna mess everything up!"</p>
<p>    "Chill out, Dee," Casey rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "I was just messing with you. I ain't gonna press anything, I swear. The only buttons I'm pressing are yours."</p>
<p>    Donnie all but growled at the other teenager, electing to merely roll his eyes and turn back to the screen silently. His fingers flew across the visual keypad, and he cursed the universe for sticking him in this situation.</p>
<p>    His other self deleting his life's work sucked. Having alternate versions of his family trying to kill them sucked. Having to sneak into a Kraang hideout to hack into their computers to save the world sucked. But getting stuck with Casey Jones for an hour? Surely, no worse punishment existed. Not even most human's idea of hell could compete with this.</p>
<p>    "Are you almost done?"</p>
<p><em>    Nothing </em>could compete with this.</p>
<p>    "No, I am absolutely not!" Donnie shouted, typing a few keywords in and scowling. "I've got a few hundreds more folders to look through to figure out where the information on their dimension is located. Care to help, or do you just wanna keep trying to distract me?"</p>
<p>    "I can try, but you know I'm no good with tech like that. I doubt you really want me to." Casey shrugged. Donnie watched out of the corner of his eyes as Casey turned and began to walk off, attention stolen by who knows what. Donnie breathed out a sigh of relief; one problem taken care of. And a million more to deal with.</p>
<p>    He turned back to the glowing screen in front of him, countless files and folders and information staring right back at him. It would take hours to dig through it all, hours he didn't have, and thankfully he had counted on that happening. Connecting his T-Phone to the Kraang system, he let his program begin sorting through the data. He'd still have to go through some of it manually.  The program only sorted through what possibly had the information he needed and what absolutely did not, but it would still speed up the time spent on this exponentially. All of this would be sorted out before they knew it.</p>
<p>    Five minutes later, Donnie stood at the screen with only a mere 74 files left to dig through. One finger on the keypad and another to point at the screen as a visual guide, he began to search.</p>
<p>    File 1 was a dud, filled with some basic information about Donnie and his brothers but nothing really interesting. Files 2 through 10 were just some various abandoned Kraang plots, the date of their last time opened easing Donnie's worries about another invasion. Most of the rest were along the same lines of uselessness. Then, Donnie stopped on file 56.</p>
<p>    "Woah... Casey, come check this out!"</p>
<p>    "Huh?" Casey glanced back, and jogged over to Donnie a second later. Looking over the genius' shoulder, he raised one brow, "What's up?"</p>
<p class="">    "Turns out, the Kraang looked at a whole bunch of alternate universes first before they choose them," Donnie said, opening a new set of files. Photos and short videos of them from countless different universes popped up onto the screen, playing soundlessly and filling their sights. Casey's eyes widened at the sight, and Donnie grinned, "Look! There's tons of us's out there they thought about taking!"</p>
<p class="">    "Dude... you weren't kidding..." Casey muttered, looking at each of them. He frowned. "'Hey, is that Megan Fox?"</p>
<p>    "Huh. Yeah, it is." Donnie turned his attention back down to the keypad again, tapping and typing away. "I mean, I know there's an infinite amount of universes out there, but it's crazy to actually see some of them. It looks like the Kraang were considering about a dozen before choosing their universe, which the Kraang named Dimension 18."</p>
<p>    "Dude, you guys are with Batman in that one!! Raph is gonna be so jealous, holy shit."</p>
<p>    "Casey, focus," Donnie said, "This is important."</p>
<p>    Casey paled, clearly not listening at all, "Dude. I think I'm a cop in one. Where's that deleting everything button again? We gotta blow up that universe NOW."</p>
<p>    "Jones, I swear to god I'm going to sell you to the Kraang."</p>
<p>    "Pshh, they couldn't afford me." Casey waved off his threat, still looking over the screen with amazement. "Dude, why are you guys black and white there-"</p>
<p>    "Casey!"</p>
<p>    "Okay, okay, fine," Casey sighed, mockingly putting up his hands in surrender before he turned back to Donnie. The purple turtle was staring intently at the corner of the screen, a series of dashes and numbers and strange symbols that Casey could never hope to understand capturing his attention. Casey frowned. "Dee?"</p>
<p>    "The Kraang have access to all of these universes and basically a thousand more through something they call 'the bridge', or at least that's the English translation of it," Donnie explained, eyes narrowed in concentration. "If I want to have any hope of opening up a portal back to New April's and Little Mikey's universe, I need to-"</p>
<p>    Donatello froze, eyes wide in terror. He yanked his hands back as though the computer had burned them. </p>
<p>    "Oh no."</p>
<p>    "What?" Casey frowned, leaning over his shoulder to get a better look at whatever freaked him out. Unfortunately, he still had no idea of what anything there meant. "Dude, what's wrong?"</p>
<p>    "They..." Donnie was muttering to himself, voice low in horror.  "What does... why would they..." </p>
<p>    Donnie trailed off, and Casey grabbed him by the shoulder, "Why would they what? What are they planning?"</p>
<p>    Donnie shook his head, fists clenched tightly. When he turned to face him, Casey felt a shiver of fear run down his spine; Donnie was horrified. He didn't know what the turtle had found on there, but whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. Donnie's voice was low when he whispered his order, and Casey didn't even think to argue.</p>
<p>    "Go get the Aprils," Donnie said, "<em>Now</em>."</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    Between Donnie, Casey, and the Aprils near the top floor, and Raph and Little Mikey in the basement, were Leonardo and Michelangelo. The Kraang droid they were following had ended up leading them to a large room near the center floor of the building, one that seemed to take up the entire floor. Unfortunately for both of the turtles, the Kraang had taken the long way around, and had stopped about five times to talk to other droids on the way.</p>
<p>    "I thought they were a hive mind," Mikey muttered, shell to the wall as Leo peered around the corner. "Why do they talk so much?"</p>
<p>    After ensuring the next hall was empty, Leo glanced back at his little brother. "They still talk less than you," He pointed out.</p>
<p>    "Well duh. I'm the master at conversation, son! No one can beat Michelangelo!" He bragged, over enunciating every syllable of his name. Leo rolled his eyes, and waved him forward. The two crept down the hall slowly, seeing the large room the Kraang entered up ahead. The two stopped just outside.</p>
<p>    "What's the plan, Leo?"</p>
<p>    Taking a moment to think, Leo tried to come up with an idea. Distantly, he could hear the Kraang speak inside... but not loud or clear enough for them to make out any real words. They needed to get inside, but without alerting the Kraang of their presence, so they could still listen to what was being said. The problem was there was only one door to the room, and they could see the backs of the Kraang through the glass pane of the door, guarding it... If they went in that way, they'd surely be seen, and then they may never find out where the other Leo and Donnie were.</p>
<p>    He turned back and looked towards the window, an idea finally forming. Leo looked towards Mikey again.</p>
<p>    "You bring your tegaki?"</p>
<p>    "Ohhh," Mikey brightened, catching onto his plan instantly, "We're going climbing?"</p>
<p>    Leo nodded, pulling out his own hand hooks and nodding towards the window, "We're gonna go out and around, since I'm pretty sure there's windows in that room too. We can sneak in that way."</p>
<p>    Mikey nodded firmly, and the two retreated back down the hall. Leo took out one Kraang on the way, Mikey taking another, and then they slipped silently out of the window. The fluorescent lights of the halls soon faded, and the ninjas were covered by the darkness of night once again. </p>
<p>    Leo and Mikey made their way across the building quickly, scaling the wall and ending up on the opposite side in record time. Mikey spotted a window closer to the top of the room, and the two climbed over. Leo slid it open silently. With one more glance around, the two made their way inside, unnoticed.</p>
<p>    And judging by the conversation overheard, they made it just in time too.</p>
<p>    "Kraang requests to know how the plan created by Kraang is commencing." One Kraang droid asked. Whether or not it was the one Leo and Mikey had followed was impossible to know; they all looked the exact same to the turtles.</p>
<p>    "Kraang has the knowledge that Kraang requests to know," Another Kraang replied, "Kraang believes that Kraang is preparing the portal which is used by Kraang for transport to transport the turtle known as 'Raphael'."</p>
<p>    "Portal?" Mikey whispered, looking to Leo, "They're setting up a portal for him? Why?" Leo shushed him immediately, shooting him a harsh look which said everything spoken words could. <em>I'm trying to listen</em>.</p>
<p>    "Excellent. When is that which is known as the portal going to be ready?"</p>
<p>    "No, seriously, Leo!" Mikey whisper yelled, grabbing his brother by the arm and tugging, "Are they going back to their world?"</p>
<p>    Leo pushed his arm away, "I don't know, Mikey! Let's listen and find out!"</p>
<p>    "I-"</p>
<p>    "Turtles!" A shout from below sounded, and Leo groaned. Of course, they had to hear them. Just as they were going to find out the plan. What else could go wrong tonight?</p>
<p>    "Nice going, Mikey!" Leo exclaimed, and Mikey pouted. Both pulled out their weapons, and threw themselves into battle without another word. At least beating up Kraang was a great stress reliever. </p>
<p>    Leo dodged a blast from a Kraang, slamming his foot into the face of another and knocking it over. He still needed a plan now—as helpful as taking out as many aliens as possible was, it wasn't going to do much for them if they couldn't complete their one job in this mission: find out where the other Raphael was supposed to meet his brothers, or just where his brothers were in general. That was their job here.</p>
<p>    A shout from Mikey caught Leo's attention, and he jumped out of the way as something whizzed by his cheek. He caught it between two fingers, looking down at it in confusion.</p>
<p>    "Tranquillizer darts?" Leo called, dropping it and turning back to the battle at hand. "Since when have the Kraang used tranq darts on us?"</p>
<p>    About a dozen droids had been called in as reinforcements now, and sure enough, nearly all of them had traded out their blasters for tranquillizer dart guns—albeit a silver and pink Kraang version of them. Leo blocked another with his sword and sliced through the chest of a bot, glancing around for Mikey. </p>
<p>    The orange turtle was holding his own just fine, practically making a game out of dodging the blasts and darts flying by him. He looked towards Leo and shrugged.</p>
<p>    "Maybe they realized we're too awesome to kill!"</p>
<p>    "I really doubt that's it!" Leo said, but that still left the question of what was <em>actually </em>going on. They never cared to switch to nonlethal weapons before, and never seemed hesitant to try to take any of their lives unless it was April. That was only because they actually needed her alive. Whatever caused this change couldn't be good, Leo knew, and he was almost scared to find out. He'd have to see if Donnie could figure it out later.</p>
<p>    He spun around and kicked another Kraang out of the way, slicing the heads off of another two at the same time and jumping to avoid getting hit by a dart. This was all happening fast, too fast, and they still hadn't figured out where the other turtles were. This was bad, this was bad...</p>
<p>    "Leo!" Leo looked over his shoulder to find Mikey pointing at a screen across the room. "They were messing around on that one before we came in, maybe there's something about where the portal to other you and Donnie on there!"</p>
<p>    Sure enough, as soon as he said that, all the Kraang's heads spun around to face him and attacked even harder than before, several racing over to form a sort of barrier around that Kraang computer. They didn't want him over there. Leo grinned; Mikey was onto something.</p>
<p>    One foot after another, he raced across the room as swiftly as he could, pushing himself to go faster and faster. Dodge, slice, swing, and dodge again, he easily beat all of the dozen Kraang trying to stop him. A laser blast nearly nicked him in the head and two darts bounced off his shell, but he was okay, and got to the computer only a few seconds later.</p>
<p>    And oh, how he wished Donnie was here.</p>
<p>    "What language is this?" Leo muttered to himself, staring at the strange symbols and pictures littered across the screen. With no discernable order and no similarity to any human language in existence, Leo really didn't have any idea of where to start. He could go get Donnie, but that'd take way too long and his team might not even be done with their part of the mission yet. He could see what Mikey thought about it. But chances were, Mikey would have no idea what to do with this either, or he would have raced over to the computer himself instead of telling Leo about it. </p>
<p>    So with no ideas of his own, Leo decided to do what his last remaining brother would. He stole a page from Raph's book and began punching the keypad.</p>
<p>    Across the room, a pink portal flew to life.</p>
<p>    "Leo!" Mikey exclaimed, horrified. Leo winced.</p>
<p>    "Yeah, yeah, I know!" He shouted back, groaning. Maybe that wasn't the best plan on his part.</p>
<p>    The room froze for several long seconds, and when nothing came through the portal, Leo breathed out a sigh of relief. Opening the portal hadn't been his original plan, but now that it was open, maybe that could work in their favor. He definitely hadn't changed its destination... So, assuming the Kraang had it on the correct coordinates, they should be able to figure it out just by looking through the portal. This could still work.</p>
<p>    More reinforcements were coming in through the door now, and Leo grimaced. They needed to get in and out, now, before they got caught, and that was becoming less and less realistic by the moment. Time to get things wrapped up.</p>
<p>    "Mikey, we gotta see what's inside the portal!" Leo called, joining his little brother in the battle and taking out more and more Kraang. Mikey glanced over to it, and then back to Leo.</p>
<p>    "Where's it lead to? Can we go through?"</p>
<p>    "Going through completely is probably a bad idea..." Leo shook his head, groaning when a Kraang blast knocked one sword from his grip. Putting both hands on his remaining one, he blocked two darts. "Maybe just a glance through? I have no idea what's on the other side, it could lead anywhere."</p>
<p>    "No big deal, I'm on it!" Mikey exclaimed. He swung the chain of his weapon over his head, watching as it swooped out and slammed into a Kraang, knocking it into three of its friends and sending them all flying back. He reached the portal only seconds later, took a deep breath, and shoved his head through.</p>
<p>    When he pulled himself back, his eyes were wide in shock, and he stared at Leo as though he had just seen the face of the devil himself. Leo opened his mouth to ask what he saw, when a loud alarm started to blare, stopping him in his tracks. The gray walls were dowsed in flashing, red lights.</p>
<p>    "Kraang, the cell that is the cell that contains that which is known as the prisoner has been breached!" One droid shouted to another, and Leo grinned. Wherever Raph and Little Mikey were, they must be making progress. "Lock down the building, Kraang orders this now!"</p>
<p>    Leo sent two more throwing stars towards the droids that had been speaking, and then ran to the exit door; their part of the mission was complete. Time to get out, ask Mikey what he saw, and go help the rest of the team. More fighting could come later.</p>
<p>    Mikey shouted as he sent a droid crashing to the floor, watching with disgust as the Kraang escaped its robotic home to flee. He paused for a second too long, and Leo grabbed him by the arm to pull him out of the way of a fired blaster. The two ran.</p>
<p>    Leo stopped at the end of the hall, throwing open a door and making way for both of them to enter the stairwell. Slamming the door shut just before the droids could get through, he tore a beam from the stair's railing and jammed it into the handle. That ought to hold them, at least for a while. He started up the stairs. Close behind was Mikey, panting slightly and trying to catch his breath, but hurrying nonetheless. The door wasn't going to stay up forever, so they needed to climb as fast as possible while they were still safe. For the moment, however, they had time. </p>
<p>    "Well," Leo asked, two floors higher now. Mikey was only a few steps behind. "What did you see?"</p>
<p>    "I..." Mikey shook his head, expression twisted into a very rare and concerned grimace; an uncommon look on the optimistic turtle. "I don't know."</p>
<p>    "You don't know?" Leo asked, confused. Mikey shook his head.</p>
<p>    "I... I think I might know... But Leo, it <em>wasn't Earth."</em></p>
<p>    Halting in his climbing, Leo stared down at Mikey in disbelief. "What?"</p>
<p>    "It was this, crazy-looking world, filled with Kraang and weird floaty islands and stuff. You know that place Donnie was talking about? Where the Kraang are from?"</p>
<p>    Mikey spoke rapidly, gesturing blindly with his hands as though desperate for Leo to understand and believe what he was saying. Leo probably wouldn't have, if it weren't for the informative speech Donnie had given all of them on the topic several nights ago. "Dimension X?"</p>
<p>    Mikey nodded, rubbing his arm. His gaze was distant, blue eyes dulled with worry.</p>
<p>    "I could be wrong, but... I'm pretty sure that was where the portal led... It seemed like the place Donnie described, at least."</p>
<p>    And like that, everything clicked into place. That was why they hadn't heard or seen anything of the other two turtles. That was why even Little Mikey couldn't recall seeing either of them since they first arrived. That was why, despite all of Donnie's city-wide monitoring, nothing offered even a hint on their locations. It all made sense. That was the reason why.</p>
<p>    They weren't even in the same dimension anymore.</p>
<p>    "We gotta get to Donnie and tell him," Leo breathed out, shaking his head to clear it, "And fast. This-"</p>
<p>    The slam of a metal door stopped their conversation, the sound echoing loudly through the metal stairwell all the way down to the bottom. If they had seen the Kraang standing on the floor above them, staring with their guns aimed directly at them, Leo and Mikey might have been able to dodge their fire in time. But as it was, neither brother could react quick enough. The distraction of their discovery had stolen their attention. Leo regretted it instantly, and Mikey could barely breathe as both watched the scene unfold.</p>
<p>    One Kraang fired, and one turtle gasped. As for the other...</p>
<p>    A dart found itself embedded into his arm. The victim stared at his brother, blue eyes wide, and wished he could turn back time. But the poison from the dart had entered his body before he could even blink, settling into his blood stream and racing through his veins. His eyes rolled back in his head.</p>
<p>    He slumped to the ground, unconscious, weapons dropping from his hands.</p>
<p>    And all his brother could do was watch.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Heart to Heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The two Aprils have a very important discussion, and Donnie discovers some very dire news.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Shout out to @lyss-draws-sometimes on Tumblr for being the first person to figure out the hint I left y'all on the last chapter, which told you which turtle got hit by the dart. See their reblog on it if you didn't figure it out :p</p>
<p>https://lyss-draws-sometimes.tumblr.com/post/650629378745729024/ok-so-i-might-be-wrong-but-and-then-leo-lost-one</p>
<p>Anyways~ Hope you guys like this chapter! It's got some fun April April bonding, which I love because both Aprils are great and deserve appreciation. I love both of them. No hate on either pleaseee thank you.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>    "Mikey!"</p>
<p>    Leo shouted as he watched his little brother's eyes roll up to the ceiling, swaying on his feet and moaning in pain. His nunchucks slipped from his hands as he slumped to the ground. They hit the ground softly, but Mikey followed with a loud <em>thump</em>. Leonardo watched in horror.</p>
<p>    Three more darts were shot, and Leo snapped out of his daze just in time to dodge them. He sheathed the one sword he had remaining and threw three stars at the droids, taking two Kraang out easily. He ran over to Mikey, threw him over his shoulders unceremoniously and grabbed both of his chucks in one hand. Though there was nothing more that he wanted to do than stay and fight, to take out the remaining bots and make them pay for what they did to Michelangelo, he knew it wasn't safe to do so right now. Leo and Mikey had finished their part of the mission and knew where the other Leo and Donnie (or at least one of them) were; now, all that was important was getting Mikey out safely and making sure the other teams were doing alright. </p>
<p>    So Leo ran. </p>
<p>    He scaled the stairs one by one, panting and trying to keep Mikey steady. He ignored the burning in his lungs and legs and pushed on. Donnie was up there, and Donnie could help Mikey. Though Leo was fairly certain whatever drug the Kraang had hit Mikey with wouldn't be fatal, he wasn't about to take any chances, and would have Donnie check him over as soon as he got up there. He just had to keep going.</p>
<p>    For the most part, there were very few Kraang who came after them as the turtle climbed the staircase. Leo counted his luck on this and knew it was probably because of the still ringing alarms; if he had to guess, all of the droids were focusing on the controlled Raphael, and perhaps his Raph and Little Mikey. He worried for them, but at least it was providing a half decent distraction for him to get Mikey out of this awful situation. With any luck, the distraction would hold long enough for him to get to Donnie and his team, so he could bring Mikey there without anymore issues. That was all he needed.</p>
<p>    But of course, he could never be that fortunate.</p>
<p>    Another door slammed open and Leo winced, spinning around immediately. Six droids stood with their tranquillizers again. Leo didn't know whether to be horrified or thankful there wasn't a single blaster in this group's hands. Why weren't they trying to kill them like normal? He wanted to know, <em>needed </em>to know, but there was nowhere to find answers yet. He scowled.</p>
<p>    "You really wanna do this now?!" Leo demanded, though he was mostly talking to himself. He knew the Kraang didn't care, and there was no point in trying to get them to see reason. Besides, from their point of view, this was the perfect opportunity to take down both of them. Mikey was unconscious, and Leo was trying to balance protecting him and fighting them... and the rest of his team was out of the picture. Leo almost couldn't blame them.</p>
<p>    He took a moment to set Mikey down on the stairs, dropping his nunchucks besides him, and then turned his gaze back to the Kraang.</p>
<p>    The Kraang stared back, and leveled their weapons. One spoke.</p>
<p>    "The two turtles known as 'Leonardo' and 'Michelangelo' are ordered by Kraang to come with Kraang." The bot turned its eyes to the fallen turtle behind Leo, monotone voice laced with so many barely disguised threats. "Come with Kraang, or face consequences which are 'unpleasant'. Hand over the smaller mutant, and then surrender yourself to Kraang."</p>
<p>    Leo shifted, blocking the aliens' view of his little brother with his own body, and pulled out his sword. He held it firmly, and leveled his gaze. With a steady tone, he spoke words filled with confidence and determination that could shake entire worlds to their cores. </p>
<p>    "You are <em>not </em>touching him."</p>
<p>    The Kraang fired, and Leonardo attacked.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>    "Wait, I changed my mind-"</p>
<p>    "Have fun, boys!" New April called, grinning to herself as she heard her counterpart giggle besides her. Both of the boys behind them were horrified at their idea to leave them alone, but the two Aprils thought the whole situation was quite funny. Not to mention, it'd be good for Casey and Donnie to get some alone time; they'd have to learn to get along eventually. New April winked. "We'll let you know if we see anything. Now, get to work!"</p>
<p>    That was the first reason the April of the now named "Dimension 18" would claim she wanted to leave them alone. However, it definitely wasn't the only one. The other reason involved not Casey and Donnie, but herself and her own counterpart getting paired up to be alone. She glanced at the April of this world besides her, frowning in thought. </p>
<p>    She wanted them to discuss Irma. </p>
<p>    After the three humans returned to the lair earlier that day, the turtles were up and already preparing for that night's mission. April had definitely wanted to discuss the creepy excuse of a friend her counterpart seemed to adore, and she even tried to start the conversation a few times! But the time wasn't right, and she knew they needed to focus on getting ready for the mission if she wanted any chance of getting her Raph back. That was more important than anything else, she knew. The conversation was put on the back burner.</p>
<p>    But now, both Aprils were going to be alone on lookout. That seemed as good a place as any to have a discussion, right?</p>
<p>    They just had to be careful, and it would be fine. Dimension 18's April took a deep breath.</p>
<p>    "So..." She said, once they were in position. The lab was at the end of a hall, to they were positioned a few yards away from the door to keep a look out for any approaching Kraang. They were far enough from the open door that they couldn't exactly make out whatever Casey and Donnie were saying, but they could still hear the general noise of angry shouts every once in a while. New April pushed that thought aside, turning to look at her counterpart, "About Irma..."</p>
<p>    "You don't like her, do you?" The red-haired April replied bluntly, sending her a tired look of exasperation. "Listen, I get it, I really do—she's a little strange and Casey was weirded out by her too. But she's a good friend, April, I promise. You just gotta get to know her."</p>
<p>    "Just a little strange?" Other April blinked. "Are you kidding? Did you see how much she stared at me the whole time? It was freaky! I felt watched at every second!"</p>
<p>    "She has a staring problem, she did the same to Casey when she first met him too. She does that, but then she backs off after a while! It's her way of, I don't know... making sure you're safe, or something."</p>
<p>    "And were you listening to the weird questions she was asking me?" New April insisted, leaning forward slightly. "She kept asking how different this place was from my home, and if I  felt out of place. Tell me that's not weird given my current situation. I dare you."</p>
<p>    April looked back and forth between nothing, as though searching the air itself for a reply. "It... It isn't! We told her you're from the country. New York is really different from there, and asking about that is just casual small talk, even if she worded it a bit weird."</p>
<p>    "Uh uh," The New April pushed her glasses up with one finger, staring down her counterpart carefully, before crossing her arms over her chest. "I've seen weird, O'Neil, we both have, and that ain't it. Something is up with her and you know it. Aren't you psychic? You should be getting the same weird vibes I am, or even stronger ones"</p>
<p>    "Well, I'm not getting any!"</p>
<p>    New April  watched her counterpart carefully. Though she was denying everything about her friend being weird, something about the way she was acting told her there was more to the story. This world's April was looking all around and at everything but her, avoiding her gaze like it was the plague. Her shoulders were tense, along with really every single muscle in her body, and she shifted awkwardly every few seconds as though she couldn't get comfortable. Verbal denial aside... she <em>had </em>to know deep down that something was wrong. Other April's dark eyes narrowed in determination; she was going to figure this out.</p>
<p>    She took a moment to calm herself down, to force the frustration building up inside her to evaporate. Inhaling deeply and shutting her eyes, she counted to ten, and when she spoke, her tone was soft and gentle. </p>
<p>    "Okay. Then tell me what's really going on."</p>
<p>    This world's April blinked, and that question caught her attention enough to make her head turn. She took a moment to look at her counterpart, blue eyes meeting brown in a scrutinizing stare as though she could find all the answers just like that, without even opening her mouth. When that didn't work, this world's April frowned, "What?"</p>
<p>    "Why are you getting so defensive of Irma?" Other April asked carefully. "It's honestly.... it doesn't seem like you. Do you owe her something? Know a crazy secret of hers? You like her? Tell me what's up."</p>
<p>    Her counterpart scrunched up her face in confusion, before breaking into a slight chuckle. "What? Oh god, none of those, no. She's just my friend, and I don't like when people attack her like this. Is that so hard to believe?"</p>
<p>    "Well, it wouldn't be that hard," New April replied, considering. Then she smiled, and leaned closer into her counterpart's space and jabbed a finger into her shoulder. "But I'm <em>you</em>. Sure, we're super different, but we're still the same stubborn crazy girl underneath it all. I know enough about us April O'Neils to tell there's always a reason behind the defensiveness. I don't care what universe we're from. We're all the same at heart." She paused, lowering her hand and leaning back to give her other self some space, and sighed. </p>
<p>    "Come on, admit whatever it is to me. It's just us." </p>
<p>    When she didn't get an immediate response, she nudged her counterpart with her elbow. "Come on, we're the same person. No need to hide anything from yourself, right?" </p>
<p>    A wave of silence overtook the halls. This world's April looked down at the ground beneath her feet, studying the silver tiles as though they were the most interesting thing in existence. New April kept her eyes on her counterpart. If she was quiet long enough, this universe's April was bound to be forced to break it eventually. They had plenty of time—judging by the constant, muted sounds of arguing coming from the room behind them, it would still take a bit of time for Donnie and Casey to figure out what they needed to know. She could wait as long as was needed for her counterpart to talk. </p>
<p>    A full minute passed, and finally, this world's April sighed.</p>
<p>    "Look, don't get me wrong," She said softly, "I love the turtles and Casey. They're amazing and practically my family at this point, and I trust them all with my life. But..." she hesitated, then turned to look at her counterpart, "But it's nice to have one normal friend. Someone to go study with and not worry about ninjas jumping through the windows to kill us at every second—just someone to hang out with normally. My life has been a wild train wreck that doesn't seem real to me sometimes. Irma is my one connection to some kind of semblance of a normal life, and I... I can't lose that."</p>
<p>    The red-haired girl trailed off, sighing, and looking at her counterpart with a sad smile. "She's more than just my friend. She's my last connection to a regular life, and I, well... I just need that sometimes, you know?"</p>
<p>    The new April froze. Recognition of the same desires she once had flooded over her, and she saw the same emotions she once shared still present in her counterpart's eyes. The tenseness in her shoulders washed away as she visibly relaxed. After all of this, the problem was even Irma; it was a desire that Dimension 18's April knew all too well. She smiled in sympathy.</p>
<p>    "Hey," She said, putting one hand on April's shoulder, "I know what that's like too, you know. Weird is cool and all but... there was a time I tried to escape it for a while too."</p>
<p>    This world's April frowned, "Really?"</p>
<p>    "Mhm," She nodded. "It was a whole thing, probably more dramatic than it should be. Weird is great but I got tired of it every single day, and just wanted one break! I tried to meet a new, perfectly normal girl at school, and kept having to yell at Leo and Donnie to go home and stop fighting ninjas outside of wherever we were hanging out—Side topic but do you know how awkward it is when your two mutant friends keep followin' you around dressed as old ladies when you're trying to hang out with a friend? Because that ain't fun, at all."</p>
<p>    "Wait, they did what-"</p>
<p>    "Anyways!" April cut her off, "It didn't work out, and that friend ended up being a yokai herself, and she's one of my greatest friends to this day. We can't escape the weirdness. Meeting you has confirmed something for me that I figured out that day: we are just weirdo magnets, and our lives won't ever be normal, no matter what the dimension." </p>
<p>    April blew her bangs out of her eyes as she let out a sigh, shaking her head. "Is it too much to ask for for just <em>one </em>normal part of your life?" </p>
<p>    "Yeah, yeah it is. And you know why?" Other April asked, "Because we're April O'Neil! We get to go on crazy adventures every day of our lives, see amazing things most people only hear about in storybooks! We get to fight ninjas and aliens and mutants and yokai and save the world, and we get to be friends with the greatest clan in all of history while we do it. We get to be part of it!" She elbowed her counterpart playfully, grinning. "Sure, it's rough sometimes, but how many people can say they've met themselves from another dimension? Or that they have psychic powers or mystic weapons? Or that they get to take part in saving their entire city and world?"</p>
<p>    After a split second of hesitation, this dimension's April chuckled, finally letting the hints of a smile onto her face. "Not many," She admitted</p>
<p>    "Barely any!" New April agreed, beaming, "To be April O'Neil is to have a crazy life, and you know what? I'm thankful for that! Even when it gets hard... I still think we're the luckiest person in all the dimensions. It took me a while to realize it, but... I wouldn't wanna trade my life for anything. Would you?"</p>
<p>    The April of this world paused, but not from hesitation this time. Memories of her nights spent with the turtles, her patrols with Casey, her training with Master Splinter... they all flashed through her mind—the good and the bad. This past year had been like nothing she'd ever expected for herself. She was kidnapped and experimented on by aliens, her father mutated into a giant bat, and her life was endangered more times than she could count. Every day was a battle for her very life.</p>
<p>    But despite it all, she had gained a family unlike she'd ever imagined having. She did amazing things, got to partake in the greatest adventure ever, and had earned her place in history. Her childhood had been lonely and quiet, but now, her life was constantly filled with family and friends to die for. After only one year, she couldn't imagine life without Donnie's excited science rants, or Mikey's barely edible cooking, or Raph's loud roughhousing, or Leo's dorky Space Heroes imitations. It wouldn't be the same without training every night with Master Splinter, or keeping Casey from taking on every bad guy in the city alone. April smiled softly, shaking her head slightly to herself before she turned back to her counterpart, and spoke the truest sentence she'd ever said in her life.</p>
<p>    "No, I wouldn't trade it ever. Not for anything."</p>
<p>    Dimension 18's April grinned, and she held up one fist. Her counterpart chuckled, and answered her fist bump with one of her own. This world's April sighed, still smiling. </p>
<p>    "I'm not going to just... stop talking to Irma. Like it or not, she is still my friend, but... I promise to keep an eye on her, and be careful around her. Okay?"</p>
<p>    The new April grinned. "That's all I'm asking for."</p>
<p>    The two Aprils were very different. But in that moment, the smiles they had on their faces mirrored the other perfectly. In that moment, they were one and the same, and the shared feeling inside both of them felt as warm as ever. </p>
<p>    They really were the same at heart.</p>
<p>    "April!! Red!!"</p>
<p>    The two girls spun around, Casey's shout startling both from their trance. Casey's usual carefree expression had morphed into one of fear and confusion, and both Aprils froze as they tried to figure out why. It was an odd look on the boy's face. Something had scared him, and something had scared him good.</p>
<p>    The April he knew better spoke first, "Casey? What's wrong?"</p>
<p>    "I don't know," He admitted, stopping right in front of them, "But Donnie like, panicked and stuff and told me to get you guys immediately. I think he found something bad. Like, super bad news."</p>
<p>    "He did?" New April frowned, scrunching up her brow, eyes shifting back and forth worriedly. Casey nodded, not saying another word and simply waving them forward, and all three ran back into the lab. </p>
<p>    Questions plagued New April's mind, the same worrying thoughts of the two running beside her. Donnie found a lot of crazy things, and though she hadn't known them that long, she knew already that Casey had a habit of acting like anything surprising they found was more awesome than worrying. He was more likely to shout for joy at horrible news than anything else. If Donnie's reaction had been enough to frighten even him, well...</p>
<p>    It had to be dire news indeed.</p>
<p>    They arrived in the lab only seconds later, jogging up to Donnie where he stood near the Kraang computers. The turtle glanced over to them, smiling ever so slightly in relief to see them, but there was no denying to stress in his eyes. Dimension 18's April spoke first.</p>
<p>    "What did you find?" She asked hurriedly, "Can you open the portal back to my world?"</p>
<p>    "I..." Donnie shook his head, looking down, "I can, hypothetically. I have the portal device with me, I know how to change the destination, and now I know the location of your universe now. But..."</p>
<p>    "But?" His April encouraged. Donnie turned around from the screen to face the three humans behind him. </p>
<p>    "First, I need to explain how the portals work in the first place, it's something I just found out from here," He explained, gesturing with his hands. "Unlike what I first assumed, the portals aren't just making a new connection between dimensions every time they're opened. Instead, they're opening up to one connection that already exists.</p>
<p>    "The Kraang build a, for lack of better words, 'bridge' connecting Dimension X to about two dozen other dimensions out there. When one portal opens up to another universe, the portal is just connecting sections of that bridge to each other. It's kind of like one long hallway, with dozens of doors on each side. The portals just access that bridge or hallway in order to transport the Kraang across dimensions."</p>
<p>    "Okay," New April considered, "But we never went to a third location when we jumped through. We never went to a bridge, so, is it like a physical thing, or..."</p>
<p>    Donnie shook his head, "It's not a literal bridge at all—in fact, it's not even a completely physical thing or location, it's kind of in between... It's hard to explain. It's sort of a physical item, but it's also not. It's more of an extremely advanced piece of Kraang technology connecting all dimensions to each other, and calling it a bridge is a simplifying metaphor for it. Just so I can better explain what it is—not to mention the Kraang literally nicknamed it 'the Bridge' anyways."</p>
<p>    "But what's wrong with it?" Casey asked, "Why would that make you not be able to open up the portal?"</p>
<p>    Donnie met him dead in the eyes. "Because there's a bomb strapped to it, triggered to go off at any point of use." </p>
<p>    "What?!"</p>
<p>    "A bomb?!"</p>
<p>    "Uh, Donnie, elaborate, NOW!"</p>
<p>    "It's not attached to other April's dimension itself," Donnie quickly clarified, "It's attached to the section of the 'bridge' connecting Dimension 18—her world—to all of the other dimensions in the system. So it wouldn't actually hurt her dimension, but it would sever the connection between our world and hers. And the bomb isn't complete either... They're still building it, but it's created enough that if I try and access that piece of the bridge, it will be extremely damaged."</p>
<p>    "So is that what all those explosives the Kraang were gathering is for?" This world's April asked. Donnie nodded.</p>
<p>    "That pile of explosives they were unloading wasn't just one uniform group of chemicals. It was a huge variety of different kinds. My guess is they were trying to figure out what kinds would work and what wouldn't, and were still in the experimenting stages at that time."</p>
<p>    "So we can't go home at all?!" New April exclaimed, eyes going wide. "We're stuck here forever?!"</p>
<p>    "No, of course not!" Donnie shook his head. "The explosion hasn't happened yet, and I don't know why they're building it but it's not finished yet anyways... And even if it did, there's probably a way to repair the Bridge, I think." Donnie shook his head, shaking his hands back and forth in an added negative gesture, "Considering we haven't even gotten your Raph, Donnie, or Leo back yet, we can deal with this issue afterwards, since maybe they'll have more information on this part of the Kraang's plan anyways. Your Donnie might be able to help especially. The main point is... I'm not going to be able to open the portal for you to bring reinforcements over to help..."</p>
<p>    "But what about the bomb?" This world's April asked again, "You said it's not complete, but it's still triggered to go off? What do you mean?"</p>
<p>    "The bomb isn't done, but it's hooked up to just self destruct anyone accesses the portal from either side. Their controlled explosion isn't ready yet, but an accidental explosion is always a possibility... It could be even more damaging to the Bridge than the controlled one they're planning, I'm not sure."</p>
<p>    "So even you might not be able to repair it if it's uncontrolled then," The red haired April muttered. Donnie didn't answer, turning to New April with a sad look on his face.</p>
<p>    "I'm sorry, April."</p>
<p>    The other April looked down, air all but knocked out of her from that mental impact. Here she was, stuck in a world not her own, and now she was hearing that there was a chance she wouldn't even be able to get back home at all. The Kraang were, what, trying to destroy their only way back <em>why</em>? Was it to discourage them from getting her boys back? To keep them from bringing over reinforcements like they had planned? To spite her? Why would they do that?</p>
<p>    She felt a hand grasp comfortingly onto her shoulder, and she escaped her thoughts just long enough to see her counterpart stare at her worriedly. She squeezed Other April's shoulder once.</p>
<p>    "We're going to get you all home," She promised. "We will."</p>
<p>    "Yeah!" Casey agreed, swinging his own arm around both the April's shoulders. He grinned his signature gap tooth smile, "The Kraang are stupid anyways, don't worry Second Red! We'll beat 'em easy, get your guys back, and send you all home. The portal can't be destroyed yet anyways; I gotta run over there and find other me. No way they're stopping me from doing that, I won't let 'em!"</p>
<p>    New April laughed, still worried, but feeling some of the worry ease from her shoulders from the awkward embrace. She reached out her arms and wrapped them around both her counterpart and Casey on either side of her, grinning, before she looked over to Donnie. He stood there awkwardly. Dimension 18's April smiled softly to herself; looks like this Donnie was unsure of physical contact too sometimes.</p>
<p>    "Come on D, you gotta join the hug too," She said, tone teasing yet inviting. Donnie hesitated, but both Casey and his world's April just grinned back at him, opening their arms encouragingly.</p>
<p>    "Yeah Donnie, get your butt over here."</p>
<p>    "There's room for one more!"</p>
<p>    Donnie sighed and rolled his eyes, feigning annoyance as he joined the makeshift hug, yet embracing them tightly anyways. They all laughed. Of course, the worry and stress was still there, but this helped ever so slightly. Other April squeezed them tighter.</p>
<p>    Maybe it would be okay.</p>
<p>    Then the alarms started blaring.</p>
<p>    The sound and flashing red light shocked them all into jumping back, sirens ringing from every direction. The Kraang's emergency call was set off. They looked at each other in panic.</p>
<p>    "What's going on?!" Casey exclaimed, Donnie shook his head; he had no idea. Their April stammered.</p>
<p>    "You- neither of you guys set something off, right?" She asked quickly, and New April shook her head.</p>
<p>    "They didn't and neither did we. It has to be something with the other team, right?" She asked, "With your Leo, Raph, and both Mikeys. You think they're okay?!"</p>
<p>    "Donnie!"</p>
<p>    Leo's voice shouted at them, and they all gasped when they spun around to seehim limping in the lab door, an unconscious Michelangelo slumped over his shoulders and a bleeding leg. Donnie dropped everything and ran over to them, taking Mikey from his older brother without hesitation. Leo let out a breath in relief, and nearly collapsed to the floor before Casey and New April caught him by each arm. This world's April set a worried hand on Mikey's arm.</p>
<p>    "What happened?" She asked. "Did Raph and Little Mikey get captured? Where are they?"</p>
<p>    Leo shook his head. The flashing of the alarm still flickered on and off, the noise ringing in their ears and the lights turning their faces red. Leo spoke urgently.</p>
<p>    "We had to separate—me and Mikey went to try to find Other April's Leo and Donnie, and they went for the other Raphael... The Kraang stopped shooting at us with their normal lasers and started using tranqs... they hit Mikey. Is he okay?"</p>
<p>    Donnie nodded. He was kneeling on the floor now, testing Mikey's pulse and quickly checking him over, "He's just unconscious. They got him good, but he should just be knocked out for a few hours. He'll be fine."</p>
<p>    Leo sighed in relief again, and New April frowned. </p>
<p>    "Leo, your leg."</p>
<p>    Donnie looked down, and saw a thin scrape on the side of Leo's thigh. It was thin, and was barely even bleeding, but Leo was struggling to put any weight on it at all. His eyes were glazed over, and Donnie narrowed his eyes, before he gasped in realization.</p>
<p>    "A dart grazed you, didn't it?"</p>
<p>    "A little," Leo admitted, "I uh, might've gotten a little drugged... But I'm fine..."</p>
<p>    "Dude, are you crazy?" Casey exclaimed, gesturing with his free hand to Mikey, "It knocked him out completely, and that tiny graze is already turning you into a zombie! That drug must be insane!"</p>
<p>    Donnie nodded, leaving Mikey with their world's April and approaching Leo, inspecting his injury carefully, "We gotta get back. You look ready to collapse where you are, Leo."</p>
<p>    Leonardo shook his head quickly, eyes half lidded, "No! We... we gotta go help Raph and... lil' Mikey... That alarm is 'cause of the Raph... not ours though..."</p>
<p>    New April shook her head, "How are we supposed to help them with you two like this? Guys, we can't take them into battle!"</p>
<p>    "And how are we going to get the other Raphael back to the lair when we have to carry these two back already?" This world's April added, sighing, "I don't know how we're going to lift him to carry him all the way back, let along if we're down so many people."</p>
<p>    Donnie grinned, lighting up in that way of his he always did when he got a new idea. "I brought the portal device with me! I can't use it for your universe, but I can still change the location to the lair. We can use that to transport the other Raphael back home, regardless of how our Raph and their Little Mikey are doing."</p>
<p>    "And this Leo and Mikey?" Casey asked, as Leo's head slumped against his shoulder. Leo's eyes kept closing and then snapping open, the effort he was taking to try to stay awake overly obvious. Donnie sighed.</p>
<p>    "I'll use the portal to get them back home to the lair first," He said, "But first... Leo, do you know which floor Raph and Little Mikey are on?"</p>
<p>    "Mhmmm..."</p>
<p>    Donnie raised a brow, "Uh huh? You gonna tell us where?"</p>
<p>    "Tell you where..." Leo frowned, mumbling his response with an unfocused gaze on the floor. "Where what is?"</p>
<p>    "Where Raph and Little Mikey are." </p>
<p>    "Oh! Uh.... I don't know... we left them on like, the ground floor or something though, I think...." Leo's eyes were closed now, weight completely slumped against Casey and Other April, "Yeah...They're down I think."</p>
<p>    "Wait, you said you guys separated for your plan," New April suddenly remembered, "Did you guys find out where my Donnie and Leo are?"</p>
<p>    "Yeah, we... yeah, we did... They're...."</p>
<p>    Leo trailed off, and this time he didn't start up again. He was out.</p>
<p>    New April groaned. "Hopefully he remembers when he wakes up..." </p>
<p>    The alarms kept flashing and ringing, and Donnie shook his head.  "We can worry about that later. We better get going, we need to-"</p>
<p>    The windows behind them shattered, glass pieces raining down across the entire floor, as shadowy figures jumped in through the smashed holes they created. The group gasped. Previously empty of all but themselves, the six found themselves surrounded by shadowy figures in seconds. Red lights lit up the room every other section, bathing the unknown entities in scarlet and making their weapons seem to glow, illusions of blood.</p>
<p>    When they came into focus, the group realized who it was.</p>
<p>    "The Foot?!" Casey exclaimed, "What are they doing here?!"</p>
<p>    "They're working with the Kraang!" Donnie exclaimed, grabbing Mikey and throwing him over his shoulders. Casey and New April adjusted their grip on Leo, and this world's April pulled out her tessen. "They must have called them as backup!"</p>
<p>    The Foot bots stood confidently, weapons drawn, and the four of them knew they didn't have long. With Mikey and Leo unconscious, there was no way they could take all of the bots out on their own; they had to get down to Raph and Little Mikey and get home, and quick. There wasn't much time.</p>
<p>    The Foot bots parted slightly as their apparent leader stepped forward, and Donnie frowned; was that the new ninja who had fought him and Leo a few nights ago? What was she doing here</p>
<p>    Other April's voice caught him off guard. "Is that the Foot Recruit?!"</p>
<p>    "You know her?" Donnie asked, confused. Dimension 18's April looked at him in shock.</p>
<p>    "Know her?! Donnie, she's from my dimension!"</p>
<p>    "What?!"</p>
<p>    "Foot bots!" The Foot Recruit called, a devious smile in her words, even as her mask covered her smirk, "We shall wipe the floor with these enemies... Attack!!"</p>
<p>    The Foot bots did.</p>
<p>    "Uh, let's have a reunion later then!" This world's April said worriedly, slashing two Foot bots with her tessen before turning around to shove Donnie forward, "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!"</p>
<p>    And so, they ran. </p>
<p>    The Foot followed right behind.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated and those along with the asks you guys send me on Tumblr motivate me so much so thank you to everyone who has ever commented or sent anything 😭 thank you guys I love you all.</p>
<p>Also, hopefully the Bridge explanation made sense? Let me know if it didn't- I tried but either way, there'll be a more detailed explanation coming up on it in the next few chapters. Another character knows a bit more info on it and will have something to say about it soon... And it's probably not the character you'd expect it to be.</p>
<p>See you guys next Saturday!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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